Responses by Derek Fridman, global executive experience director, Huge

Background: Our philosophy has never been to simply redesign for the sake of redesigning; rather, to apply the best of our own skills to the Huge brand and create something that serves as a platform for us to experiment with. Our site was built for the design, creative and technology communities, prospective clients and the large number of people who apply to work at Huge every year.

Highlights: In this sixth iteration of hugeinc.com, we’ve consolidated the traditional logo/hamburger combination into one singular function, represented by the H at the top of the page. The homepage is also now in a short feed format, as it now serves as the central place to find out about the newest Huge projects, and we’ve also overhauled the job application process so that applicants can now use a portfolio link and video to apply.

Challenges: We went through several iterations and approaches to redesigning the site until we got to something we were proud to launch. One of the hardest and best parts about Huge is that if something isn’t right—if you don’t love it, or more importantly if your users don’t love it—then we’ll throw it away and start again. That can be a grueling process, but it’s worth it.

Favorite details: We’re most proud of the balance and constraint put into the site design. It’s just the right amount of information and utility. From a technology standpoint, I’ve been blown away by the site’s overall speed and performance that was achieved by our development teams.

Navigational structure: We explored a number of different directions all intended to make the site simpler and bolder, but we’re most excited about the change from user interaction with the brand to user interaction with the brand identity itself. Consolidating the navigation meant we could design a cleaner appearance that also pushes established navigation paradigms.

Technical features: We have a lot planned for 2018 to make the site more anticipatory and personally relevant to each user. We’re going to make it easy for employees to customize their own portfolio versions of the site, and our data science and design teams are working to make the content users see are more personally relevant.