Shanaz Ikonne, PLLC
Brand and Website Design, 2023 - Shanaz Ikonne, PLLC
As a therapist, Shanaz Ikonne seeks to guide her clients to a place of hope and healing. She specializes in working in a trauma-informed framework to help women embrace their authentic selves.
My work in doing a rebrand and redesign of the website included research to understand what people were looking for in a new therapist, research into designing for neurodivergence, and designing a comforting brand in the concept "Like Home".
I collaborated with Evan Zane-Green, another designer on the research and subsequent analysis to output a solution that would resonate with the target audience. I then implemented the new brand into the final website.
Design opportunities
Many different pages in odd places, making for a long navigation bar.
Inconsistent branding through its logo, color, typography, and imagery.
Large amounts of text that hide key information and calls to action.
I focused on creating a brand that would make visitors feel comfortable and trusting in Shanaz as a therapist and a website that was organized with easy-to-find key information.
I collaborated with Evan Zane-Green on interviewing potential users to understand their expectations when it comes to looking for a new therapist. I guided him in creating research questions and designing a card sort to test how users expect a therapist site to be organized.
Shanaz especially wanted us to focus on designing for neurodiverse clients, so we made sure to include them in our sample, research the best overall ways to design for neurodiversity, and understand their experiences with therapy.
Why do people seek therapy?
What are people looking for in therapy?
Understanding | Comfort | Aligned Values
The Brand
After speaking with Shanaz and conducting user research to understand what users are looking for, I settled on the idea of "Like Home" for the look and feel of the brand. The emotions we wanted to emphasize were trust, comfort, belonging, and relatability. A place that feels like home has warmth, belonging, and approachability. It’s soft and inviting. Interesting, but not overwhelming. Inclusive and welcoming to all who come.
From a visual perspective, it's characterized by:
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Warm and soft colors with intentional accents
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Subtle textures or patterns
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Comfortable fonts with direct content
"Like Home" Moodboard
For the logo, she wanted to incorporate a crown, referencing her sons. I took that visual and also made it representative of knowing and living in your worth as a person.
The Website
After solidifying the brand, I then moved on to designing the website. I did a comprehensive analysis of the website's content, organizing it into an architecture that made sense and adjusting the content to be more relatable and readable.
Once the content was finalized, I moved forward to implementing the brand to the website, setting up the Wix account with the typography, colors, and imagery matching the "Like Home" aesthetic.
