How we helped Boxy develop its branding and communication strategy — a case study

As the team behind Boxy's identity and website refresh, we delivered a new sustainable design and direct communication, making their services accessible to businesses of every size.

Introduction

Boxy is a pioneering company in the logistics sector, providing state-of-the-art solutions for e-commerce stores. They offer a complete service across warehousing, product handling, packaging and delivery, relieving their clients of the burden of logistics processes. They can be proud of Hungary's largest robotized fulfilment warehouse and of their own fleet, with which they guarantee same-day delivery. One of Europe's most modern fulfilment centres is in Boxy's hands, where robots move and sort the packages inside an environmentally conscious warehouse hall.

Project context

Boxy has been through a number of changes and organizational developments in recent years. Those changes shaped a new outlook and created the need to refresh the brand and the communication strategy. As part of adapting to shifting market demands, they recognized that their website needed rethinking, so that it would be structured and redesigned around their new understanding and goals.

Why us?

Boxy decided six months ago to choose us as the partner to deliver the project. Several factors influenced the engagement:

• First, over the course of our earlier collaboration we had proven ourselves a reliable and effective partner in every area we worked on together.
• Second, we carried out a comprehensive audit that surfaced the problems and offered solutions for them, and from that we developed a convincing project plan for them.
• Third, our technology choices fit Boxy's vision precisely, which reinforced their confidence in entrusting the project to us.

What we did

• Strategy & Research
• Project Planning and Management
• Creative Direction
• Branding & Identity Design
• UI/UX Design
• B2B Web Development
• Maintenance

Roles and responsibilities

• Máté Varholik (Project Owner) – As project owner, Máté Varholik was responsible for defining the project goals and ensuring they aligned with the company's overall objectives and strategy.
• József Juhász (Project Manager) – As project manager, József Juhász was responsible for project planning, holding the deadlines and keeping communication inside the team running smoothly.
• Krisztián Ambrus (Lead UI/UX Designer) – As lead UI/UX designer, Krisztián Ambrus was responsible for ensuring the website's user experience and the company's identity met the project goals and Boxy's brand expectations, and were consistent with the new strategy.
• Dorottya Ladányi (UI/UX Designer) – As UI/UX designer, Dorottya Ladányi worked alongside Krisztián Ambrus, supporting the visual and experience design process and ensuring it reflected the needs of Boxy and its target audiences.

An identity facelift

Defining the problem

• Problems with the old identity: Boxy's initial playful, startup-flavoured appearance had over the years come into conflict with the company's market position and role. At a company that had become a market leader and represented steadily growing professionalism, the older, lighter identity no longer met expectations. On top of that the company's brand assets had proven outdated and were cumbersome to refresh, which put the company at a disadvantage in strengthening the brand further.
• Disharmony between leadership and identity: Boxy's leadership identified less and less with the old identity. That disharmony distorted not only the company's internal self-image but also affected the creative work, constraining the scope for innovation.
• Communication barriers: Outbound communication did not properly reflect one of the company's most important values: accessibility. Although the company offered highly innovative and robust solutions, an overly corporate approach in its communication could leave potential clients feeling that Boxy's services were out of reach for them, or too enterprise-oriented.

Stated expectations

• More direct communication: Boxy.hu wanted accessibility at the centre of its communication. The company's services are available to clients of every size, from small businesses to large enterprises, at an acceptable price.
• Lifelike imagery: The company's new identity wanted to show its target audience in its own environment, using real, stock or AI-generated images.
• Dynamism and professionalism: Boxy emphasizes that despite years of experience behind them they are still an innovative company with momentum. That dynamism had to come through not only in the copy but in the identity elements too.
• Refining the logo: While the basic form of Boxy's logo could not be changed, the company wanted us to optimize its proportions for a more professional appearance.
• Maintaining colour consistency: The company was open to proposals about which elements could be refreshed and to what extent, without having to replace all existing materials, assets and infrastructure.

Building the B2B website

Preliminary research

UI/UX audit

At the start of the project we ran a thorough UI/UX audit of Boxy's website, surfacing the site's existing shortcomings and opportunities for improvement. On the homepage alone we identified four critical UI and identity problems and four critical UX problems, and formulated a further 27 smaller recommendations. Those observations covered the homepage only, and their aim was to improve the user experience. We put forward further recommendations on problems affecting the site in its entirety.

Competitor analysis

We also examined competitors' UI/UX approaches closely. Looking at style, the coherence of imagery and copy, and the marketing role of individual page sections, we paid particular attention to how Boxy and the fulfilment service were presented. We found that relative to competitors Boxy did not sufficiently emphasize the benefits of fulfilment for its various audiences, and did not adequately address those audiences' pain points. Trust-building, moreover, rested mainly on presenting individual competencies, and standalone landing pages supporting marketing and sales goals were negligible in number.

Defining the problem

• An unsustainable website: The site was not modular, was not built on components, and did not rest on a unified design system. As a result neither sustainability nor easy extensibility was assured. New requirements were handled through separate processes, which was time-consuming and inefficient.
• Outdated content: The site's content did not match Boxy's current communication strategy. Overly formal phrasing and a rigid visual world failed to hold potential clients' attention. Because those clients were intimidated by the scale and complexity of Boxy's services, building trust and reaching the relevant audiences demanded extra resources.
• Missing elements: The audit revealed that the landing pages either did not contain every necessary element or did not give them appropriate emphasis. That made it necessary to commit further marketing and sales resources to resolving the audience's uncertainty.

Stated expectations

• Sustainability and consistency: It mattered that the site become sustainable over the long term and easy to manage. Implementing a design system helped preserve a consistent identity and made the site easy to modify, not only for developers but for the Boxy team too.
• Direct communication: The goal was targeted pages tailored to the needs of different client groups, where the content addresses the audience directly and effectively. It mattered that the pages properly handle each audience's specific problems, expectations and questions of trust.
• A wow factor: The design had to be striking and absorbing, so that a user opening the page would immediately sense they were dealing with a high-quality, carefully designed and well-executed site. The page had to be able to draw in every visitor, whatever their generation, profession or circumstances.

The UI/UX process

1. Workshops and planning

After the market analysis and the study of competitors we launched our B2B sales workshops. Their aim was a thorough understanding of Boxy's sales strategy and target audience, so that we could recognize buyers' pain points and find the right answers to them. We used what we learned there to shape the website and the content structure, ensuring that every piece of information would be accessible and easy to process for B2B buyers.

2. Wireframing

The next step in the design process was producing mid-fidelity wireframes. These drafts already contained written content, which helped the client grasp the structure of the site visually at minimal cost. In building the wireframes we drew on what the workshops had produced, including the strategic considerations and the sitemap structure. We assigned concrete goals and copy and visual requirements to every section, so that later phases of the project could build on them.

3. Filling the wireframes with AI-drafted copy

We used ChatGPT to fill out the wireframes further. The copy suggestions it produced eased the work of Boxy and the copywriters. Although the final copy was written in a later phase of the project, our suggestions provided a good starting point. In our experience so far, using AI accelerates workflows provided the project is properly documented and well parameterized.

4. A bolder design

Thanks to the Atomic Design System, Boxy's website contains 54 unique sections which, together with their variants, encompass more than 200 elements. The design system accounted for responsiveness as well, designed across five different screen sizes from ultra-wide to mobile. That made the development process easier and smoother. We completed the first iteration of the design phase in a single week, thanks to our own well-documented Atomic Design System. Several internal and external iteration rounds followed, and the result was that we could close the UI design work in three weeks in total.

5. Larger elements, more space

To improve the site's legibility and user experience we used larger white space and larger elements, particularly on desktop. Our research found that American competitors frequently take this approach. White became the dominant colour of the site, emphasizing clarity and foregrounding the essential content such as faces and images.

6. Designed for the audience

In designing every page we took the specific needs of the target audience into account. The copy, the use of colour and the visual embeds all started from the audience's parameters. The images and video material were likewise designed so that members of the audience could readily identify with them.

7. Putting the brand colours to work

We used the brand colours by assigning them to the named audiences. Each audience was identified with a colour suited to it, which played an important role not only in the identity design but in the marketing material that followed.

8. AI-generated imagery

This was the first project where we applied the possibilities of AI image generation with full confidence. The images were generated from the objectives and parameters, mixing photographs provided by Boxy, stock images and images generated with Midjourney.

9. Designing the animation

Alongside static images we designed animation for the site, to bring out the wow factor more strongly. To improve the user experience we settled after several iterations on one animation that helps the user navigate onward and strengthens the first impression.

The success of the project

Goals achieved

🌲 Sustainability

We achieved the new site's sustainability by implementing a unified, well-styled design system. Sustainability was our primary objective from the outset, so at every phase of the design process we kept long-term usability, consistency and scalability in view. The design system made it possible to reuse design elements and simplified both updates and the addition of further functionality, securing the site's long-term viability.

Direct communication

"From 'Dear Sir or Madam' to simply 'Hello'."

Over the course of the project we developed a direct communication style covering both written and visual content. We helped Boxy shape the logic of the site and articulate the company's strategy. By bringing design and content into alignment we successfully softened the strict, corporate presentation and created a friendly style. That made the site more approachable and improved client relationships.

👨‍👩‍👦 Audience-specific content

"For new online stores, established online stores, wholesalers and manufacturers."

We carefully identified the problems, needs and fears of Boxy's target audiences and produced content tailored to them. Targeted content let us communicate precisely and effectively with the different client groups. That approach improved both client interest and client engagement, because clients received relevant, valuable information that directly addressed their own particular problems.

🎨 A consistent identity

Using a central design system we created a consistent identity, identical across every platform. That integrated approach ensured Boxy's brand would be consistent and recognizable at every point of contact. Thanks to the central design system the identity became easy to manage across all platforms, and we strengthened the brand's force and presence in the market.