Legal 500 Design

Judging a website by its cover

The Legal 500 sought to modernise their platform to meet evolving user expectations, ensuring their trusted legal rankings and resources remained accessible and relevant in a competitive digital landscape. Spork stepped in to deliver a design transformation that put users first.

  • Client

    Legal 500

  • Problem

    An overwhelming amount of content made for a confusing user interface that did not match up to Legal 500's reputation.

  • Solution

    Mobile first design system and updated visual identity.

  • Outcome

    Improved usability, and happier users.

  • Design-thinking sprints
  • UX Research
  • User Interface Design
  • Collaborative design

The Challenge

It was clear from our consultation with Legal 500 that their digital presence just struggled to match their global prestige. And that was getting everyone down. The issues were multifaceted and deeply entrenched, impacting usability, content clarity, and visual cohesion across their web properties. Here’s what we discovered.

Duplication of Content - Editorial rankings were repeated verbatim on multiple pages, leading to redundancy and a cluttered user experience.

Unstructured Pages - Key content was presented in extremely long and unwieldy pages that were difficult to navigate and overwhelming for users.

Editorial Voice Dilution - The distinctive tone of The Legal 500’s
editorial was hard to distinguish from law firm-provided content. Restoring appropriate visibility, primacy and prominence to Legal 500’s authoritative editorial voice was important.

Complex Iconography - A proliferation of hard-to-decipher icons with lagging hover effects left users confused rather than informed.

Structural Mismatch - The site’s editorial data structure, which had
grown organically over several decades, was in urgent need of
consolidation and consistency for the benefit of the business and its
users.

Fragmented Visual Identity - With around 17 different masthead variations across its web properties, The Legal 500’s brand lacked consistency and cohesion. The menu arrangement was really confusing - and the site’s hierarchy was not clear to the user.

Mobile Experience as an Afterthought - The mobile experience fell far short of modern expectations, making on-the-go access a challenge for users. And despite the Legal500.com relative success with SEO, the site was beginning to be penalised for having a poor experience for mobile use.

The Work

Spork stepped in with a fresh perspective, balancing creativity with strategic thinking to bring The Legal 500’s website up to the gold standard their audience expected, and the company deserved. Here’s how we tackled the challenge:

Streamlined content with report card modals To address duplication, we introduced a new report card modal page. This allowed users to access detailed content in context, without navigating away from the Practice Area rankings page.
Streamlined content with report card modals
Elevated Editorial Voice By creating a distinct typographic treatment for editorial content and clear attribution for firm-provided material, we sharpened the focus on The Legal 500’s unique voice.
Elevated Editorial Voice
Unified Visual Identity Collaborating with their in-house art director, we developed a modern visual identity, breaking away from the print-era aesthetic. This laid the groundwork for consistency across all digital touchpoints.
Unified Visual Identity
Universal Navigation We introduced a universal navigation system that unified the disparate web properties, making transitions between them seamless.
Universal Navigation

The Outcome

The redesigned Legal 500 website is a testament to the power of thoughtful design and strategic problem-solving. Here’s what we achieved:

  • Improved Usability: The introduction of modals, streamlined navigation, and a mobile-first approach dramatically enhanced the user experience.
  • Stronger Brand Identity: A cohesive visual identity unified The Legal 500’s digital presence, reinforcing their authority in the legal world.
  • Content That Stands Out: Distinct editorial typography and clear content attribution ensured The Legal 500’s voice was front and center, while third-party contributions were clearly differentiated.
  • Faster Development Cycles: The design system brought efficiency to ongoing updates and new feature rollouts.
  • Happier Users: Whether accessing the site on desktop or mobile, users now enjoy a sleek, intuitive experience that reflects the professionalism and prestige of The Legal 500.

The overhaul of the Legal500.com UI was a reinvention of how Legalease communicates its expertise and authority in the digital age.

They said

Our identity, reputation and expertise is the major driver of our business. A consultancy service that came in and sought to impose rehearsed ideas on us wouldn’t have worked. Spork worked because they were partners not pedagogues.

Stephen Jones, Chief Product Officer

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