Accountant website refresh

Simplifying complexity — a website redesign that clarified structure and improved the client experience.

greyscale accounting website visual within a frame

The Brief

I was contracted to redesign a dual-market accounting firm's website serving clients across Australia and the UK.

The existing site suffered from information overload and poor user experience, with content densely packed without strategic hierarchy or user consideration.

My role included refining the home page concept, building a design system from scratch, creating key templated for the site as well as supporting with user testing, and creating dev handover document.

ROLE

UI Designer (contractor)

Design system, UI Design, user testing & dev handover

Design System Architecture

I structured the Figma file with a scalable, modular approach:

Foundation Layer
Established core design tokens including typography scales, colour systems, and layout grids to ensure visual consistency.

screenshots showing variables and grids set up in figma

Component Library

Organised into three distinct categories:

  • Base elements – Fundamental UI pieces (buttons, icons, images, form fields)
  • Content blocks – Composite modules (featured content, article cards, video embeds)
  • Global components – Persistent elements (navigation header, footer, subscription modules)

Responsive Design
Each component was designed with full responsiveness across three major breakpoints (desktop, tablet, mobile), ensuring seamless experiences across all devices.

Overall Figma file screenshot to show page set upFigma file showing components set up

Templates & Deliverables
Created high-fidelity templates with interactive prototypes and comprehensive handover documentation for development.

Figma file showing greyscale concepts of designs

Overview of Figma file showing pages layout order of responsiveness - Desktop, Tablet and mobile along with annotations explaining functions and interactions.

Filtering events by location and date range (Interactive prototype — screen capture)

Events detail page (Interactive prototype — screen capture)

Evolution & Iteration

The design system remained flexible throughout the project, continuously adapting as new requirements emerged. Components were refined and expanded to support the growing site architecture while maintaining design consistency.

User Testing & Validation

I supported the UX designer in conducting remote moderated testing sessions with 5 participants. Users interacted with Figma prototypes via screen sharing while I assisted with note-taking, technical monitoring, and post-session analysis.

Sessions evaluated three key areas:

  • First Impressions – Brand perception, visual hierarchy, and professional credibility
  • Find-ability – Ease of locating information and services through navigation
  • Usability – Task completion rates and friction points across user flows

Impact

Testing revealed several important insights that informed design refinements:

  • Positive brand response – Users reacted favourably to the refreshed branding, noting improved professionalism and visual appeal
  • Navigation success – Participants found the new site significantly easier to navigate compared to the existing website, representing a major UX improvement
  • Locked content clarity – Users struggled to identify gated content and weren't clear they needed to sign in to access certain materials, prompting design adjustments to improve visibility of authentication requirements

These insights were incorporated into the final designs before development handover, ensuring a user-validated solution.

Outcome

Led a full UI redesign and scalable design system build for an accounting firm serving Australia and the UK.

I helped simplify the structure and hierarchy to reduce information overload, introduced a modular component library, and validated design decisions through remote user testing. User feedback indicated improved brand perception and easier navigation, informing final refinements prior to development.

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