Hesketh Henry
Client
Hesketh Henry
Year
2025
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Project scope
Responsive Web Design
PROJECT INTRO
With a refreshed brand and evolving business strategy, Hesketh Henry required a digital experience that reflected both its long-standing reputation and more forward-thinking positioning. As one of New Zealand’s oldest law firms, the challenge was balancing over 160 years of heritage with a cleaner, more contemporary online presence.
I led the UX and UI design direction for the new website experience, helping translate the firm’s refreshed identity into a modern, content-rich platform that felt intuitive, approachable and strategically aligned with the next phase of the brand.
Challenge
The existing site housed a significant volume of content spanning multiple sectors, areas of expertise, team profiles, articles, events and legacy resources – making discoverability and navigation increasingly complex. Alongside improving usability, the new experience needed to support the firm’s updated positioning while preserving SEO value across hundreds of migrated articles and resources.
approach
We began with a sitemap strategy and tree-testing process to better understand how users navigated the firm’s extensive content ecosystem and identify opportunities to simplify key pathways. These insights helped shape a clearer information architecture and more intuitive navigation structure across both sector and expertise categories.
Working from an early-stage digital brand direction, I led the broader UX and UI rollout – refining layouts, interaction patterns and visual systems to create a more cohesive and approachable digital experience. The design direction balanced restraint and sophistication with improved readability, stronger hierarchy and more flexible content structures capable of supporting a wide range of editorial and informational content.
A semi-automated migration process was also implemented to successfully transfer hundreds of legacy articles and resources into the new platform while maintaining SEO performance and search visibility.
OUtcome
The final platform delivered a more polished, modern and user-friendly experience that better reflected Hesketh Henry’s evolving brand and strategic direction.
By simplifying navigation, improving content discoverability and creating a more cohesive digital system overall, the new site helped transform a complex content ecosystem into a clearer and more accessible experience for both existing and prospective clients.
The project successfully balanced heritage with modernisation – giving the firm a stronger digital presence while creating a scalable foundation capable of supporting future growth, content expansion and ongoing marketing initiatives.
