Website Design for Praxis Fire Solutions
Transforming an idea into a fully functional website through collaborative co-creation.
Project Overview
Bringing an idea to life.
Praxis Fire Solutions (Praxis) is an emerging start-up that specializes in creating comprehensive fire training and safety resources to empower fire departments, businesses, and emergency responders to operate with confidence and efficiency.
Having recently finalized their main product offerings after six years of testing and refinement, they were in need of an official website to launch the innovative solutions to prospective clients.
With Praxis being a passion project of its founder, it was crucial for me to deeply understand all aspects of their business operations and primary needs. After various collaborative sessions, my key objective was clear: since this is a brand new business, we need to seamlessly guide prospective clients through the website from information discovery to booking a session in a way that is clear and effortless.
The Problem
Streamlining information, maximizing client conversions.
Praxis offers a variety of solutions, ranging from fire training models to fire safety pre-plans to custom solutions. There is no other business exactly like this, so users may not be familiar with the information presented on the website.
How can we structure the abundance of information in a way that is clear, professional, and engaging while maximizing conversion rates?
The Solution
Clearly structured information architecture and prominent CTAs.
Through continuous collaboration with Praxis’ founder, I identified the key elements of the website, including a simple but comprehensive navigation menu, CTAs on every page, and a minimalistic design, which work together to create a seamless user journey which leads to maximum client conversions.
Problem Definition
Deliver accessible information, drive conversions, and maintain industry standards.
I knew that Praxis offered a wide range of solutions, so my first step was to get a better understanding of their business objectives and each of their offerings.
I did this by holding a Discovery Session with the creator of Praxis, Kent Gallant.
Key objectives for the session:
Understand the company mission and goals
Gain insight into each product/service offering
Identify the target audience for the website
Identify major competitors in the field
Learn more about Kent’s vision and goals for the website
Through our discussion, I identified that the website needed to:
Provide organized and accessible information that is relevant to target audience
Engage visitors to maximize conversion to clients
Ensure alignment with visual and professionalism standards of the fire industry
Competitive Analysis
Organizations in this field have a clear typology but lack structure.
There is no business like Praxis, but organizations in the fire industry tend to follow a certain typology. I looked into some of Praxis’ closest competitors to identify what they do well and what users in this field may expect to see when browsing.
First Due
First Due is a well-established company that provides software solutions designed specifically for fire departments and emergency services.
Their website effectively highlights clear CTAs on every page, seamlessly guiding users to key sections like the Products and Contact pages.
However, when exploring their product offerings, I found myself quickly overwhelmed by the extensive list, which lacked clear structure or organization, making it difficult to navigate through the variety of options.
Lion Protects & Max Fire Box
These two companies also operate in the fire safety and protection field, offering products and services ranging from fire detection solutions to portable safety equipment.
These websites, while lacking a well-defined information architecture and displaying some formatting inconsistencies, effectively embody the key design elements typically found in the fire industry: strong, bold typography, emotional imagery, and a colour palette of greyscale with warm-toned accents.
Learnings
A balance between simplicity and sufficient information is required.
Based on my findings, I concluded that Praxis’ website needed to have the following features:
Clearly structured and streamlined information architecture
Prominent display of key offerings
At least one CTA on every page
Strong, bold typography and visual design
Site Map
I ensured that the site navigation acts as a clear guide to users.
Before wireframing, I sketched out the site map to guide the structure of the website. Although this initial map covered the basics, further review and feedback led me to change a couple key aspects:
All product offerings will be consolidated under the "Solutions" tab, with a sub-section dedicated to Fire Training Models to highlight distinct products in that category. This simplifies the navigation menu and provides a comprehensive overview of available solutions at a glance.
A "Book a Session" page was added alongside the “Contact” page to better focus the CTAs. The Contact page handles general inquiries, while the "Book a Session" page is dedicated to scheduling for users ready to book.
Wireframes
Wireframes were crucial in developing the structure of each page.
Using Figma, I created wireframes for each page, writing copy as I went. Establishing the messaging early on ensured that the purpose of each page was crystal clear.
This was the most challenging part of the process as I was consolidating all the information I had learned about Praxis into a concise and accessible format for prospective clients. Extensive background research and collaborative sessions with Praxis enabled me to solidify my understanding.
The Final Result
Guiding users on their journey of discovery to booking a session.
Once the wireframes were finalized, it was time to build the website in Wix. With the structure and copy already defined, the visual design was the last step to implement. Through various collaborative sessions, we developed a fully functional website that would engage users upon landing on the homepage to navigating through the streamlined offering groups to the last step of getting in touch or booking a training session.
Responsive Design
The key messages are clear across devices.
As many users would be accessing the site through their phones, it was imperative for the design to be highly responsive and accessible, delivering Praxis’ key messages clearly, no matter the device.
The "Book a Session" CTA is still prominently displayed within the hamburger menu.
Conclusion
Overcoming ambiguity with collaboration and co-creation.
Designing the Praxis website was an exciting and rewarding challenge that provided me with in-depth understanding of the unique requirements of the fire safety industry, as well as insight into the platform creation process. We began with a rough idea of what we wanted the site to achieve and then worked to make it a reality.
Despite the difficulties, such as ambiguity of the objectives in the early stages, this was overcome by continuous engagement and collaboration with the client, as well as rigorous background research into industry best practices, resulting in a final design which aligned with the vision of Praxis.
Reflecting on the project, I believe there is always room for improvement. If we had more time, I would have enjoyed creating additional customized graphics and visuals to give the site even more personality and uniqueness. Overall, this project reinforced the value of effective communication, critical thinking, adaptability, and an open-minded approach in creating a platform that meets user needs and exceeds expectations.
“Alice gave us confidence from the beginning that she truly cared about putting the vision and mission of our business into a website that represented us and spoke to our clientele. I am highly impressed by Alice's attention to detail and her ability to understand and absorb the information that was provided to her. She took the time to immerse herself into researching our products and fully understanding our business to develop best practices for each of our key objectives. The result is a website that we're extremely proud to have representing Praxis Fire Solutions.”
-Kent Gallant, Praxis founder
