Redesigning Tripwire: Making a leader look like a leader
Most of us have no idea what Configuration Control means, nor have we heard of SOX, FISMA, NERC, or worry about virtualization and compliance. In a growing IT configuration control industry, Tripwire found itself positioned as a market leader almost by surprise, but with a site that didn’t successfully promote, educate, and sell their services and products. A complete content overhaul, rebranding, and site revamp were necessary.
I was brought in by Katherine Gray of The New Civilization to work on information architecture and visual design, implementing the new brand materials created by Laura Steur Alvarez. Along with a visual refresh, we also had to figure out how to support their long-term content needs in a more flexible site. Through the wireframing process I collaborated with internal and client teams to develop a site structure that would allow increased content cross-promotion and simplify complex interactions.
With a complete set of wireframes in hand, I designed a series of visual directions to help the Tripwire client team determine their visual language and mood. We focused on the idea of confidence and authority, selecting color blocking, photography, and typography that supported a sense of stability without feeling overly serious or dark. The photography needed to feel realistic and aspirational to balance the dark grays in the color palette and provide a human approach to such technical services.
Beyond look and feel, the greatest challenges were in creating new interfaces for Tripwire’s Resource library and News sections. We didn’t want to provide a long list of documents, but a faceted approach helped display the content in a more meaningful and easy to access manner. Likewise, the News section needed to be more than a list of press releases and news bites. We wanted a way to show multiple types of content without overwhelming site visitors.
All in all, this was a great project both for visual design and interaction design. I got to stretch my brain on both, and feel like we came up with a great solution that will serve Tripwire well.