At Voices.com, we connect businesses with professional voice talent around the world. From e-learning modules to video game characters to interactive voice response systems, our marketplace serves clients of every size—from Fortune 500s to startups. And while the quality of a voice can evoke emotion and spark imagination, the digital experience surrounding that voice must be just as seamless and intuitive.
That’s why, several years ago, we undertook one of the most transformative digital initiatives in our company’s history. It began with a simple realization: mobile wasn’t just a secondary screen—it was becoming the primary one.
Our goal was clear: deliver a unified, high-performance experience across every device. What followed was a design-led transformation that reshaped how we think about user experience—and redefined our business trajectory.
Recognizing the Shift: The Moment the Data Spoke Louder Than Words
Our initial mobile solution was what you’d expect from many early-stage platforms: a lightweight brochure-style site that redirected users to the desktop version. It worked—for a while.
But then we saw something that changed everything. In a twelve-month period, mobile traffic climbed from 5% to 20%. Even more telling? Over 80% of those mobile users were abandoning the mobile site and choosing to view the full desktop version instead.
That insight was pivotal. It wasn’t just about traffic—it was about intent and behavior. Clearly, our mobile experience wasn’t meeting user expectations. And in a business where customer experience is everything, that wasn’t acceptable.
Starting Small: How Thinking Mobile-First Clarified Everything
We embraced responsive design with a mobile-first mindset. We began with a simple, fundamental question: If our platform had to exist solely on a smartphone, what would it need to do?
To answer that, we built a comprehensive “mind map”—a visual blueprint of every screen, feature, and function required to complete our core tasks: auditioning, searching for talent, and hiring talent. This exercise became an unexpected moment of clarity. We uncovered redundancy in areas like payment history and billing, where we had three different sections presenting the same data. Simplifying wasn’t just about design—it was about improving the customer journey.
We used this mind map not only to build our mobile apps for smartphones and tablets, but to reimagine the responsive version of our site in HTML5. The constraints of the small screen helped us surface what truly mattered. And it forced us to ask: If it’s not essential on mobile, should it exist at all?
Designing with Intent: The Art of “Show and Hide”
Consistency across platforms was the objective, but consistency doesn’t mean uniformity. We wanted to give every user the best possible experience for their screen.
That’s where our “show and hide” strategy came into play. For example, on desktops, we could support six or seven columns—but on a phone, two or three were more realistic. So instead of removing valuable content entirely, we selectively hid visual elements like icons or screenshots that added polish but not function.
Take our talent profiles. Desktop users see icons representing studio equipment—microphones, software, and computers. On mobile, we stripped that away, knowing that download speed and clarity trump aesthetic detail on smaller screens.
We even adjusted onboarding screens. Desktop users saw large screenshots explaining how the site worked, but we assumed mobile users were already familiar with the platform—so we left them out. It was all part of our mission to keep the experience fast, focused, and user-centric.
Redesigning the Foundations: Header, Menu, Body, Footer
Redesigning the interface wasn’t just about responsiveness—it was about brand alignment. So we took the opportunity to rethink the foundational elements of the site:
- Header: We added a prominent one-touch menu and search icon—recognizing that voice seekers often come with specific talent in mind.
- Menu: Positioned at the top-left, the menu became the command center—easy to access, intuitive to navigate.
- Body: This is where content lived—search results, profiles, demos. We left it blank during mockups to focus solely on flow and usability.
- Footer: Previously bloated with 40+ links, we cleaned house. Today’s footer is lean—privacy, terms of service, and a few social icons. That’s it.
Trying to cram a desktop-style footer onto a phone? It just didn’t make sense. We had to think from the user’s point of view, every step of the way.
Testing the Experience: Beyond “Does It Work?”
Before launch, we tested extensively—both internally and externally. Functionality across devices and browsers was a given. But we went further.
We asked: How does the experience feel? Is critical data visible without scrolling? Are interactions intuitive?
We created a testing matrix covering everything from technical compatibility to emotional resonance. Only once we saw green lights across all dimensions did we go live.
Educating Our Users: Transparency Builds Trust
The functionality of Voices.com hadn’t changed—but the interface had. To ensure a smooth transition, we launched a pre-release campaign.
We filmed a webinar, posted tutorials to YouTube, and created user guides to walk clients and talent through the changes. It paid off. Internally, our team unanimously agreed: it was our most successful product launch ever.
The Impact: Results that Moved the Needle
The results weren’t just impressive—they were transformational:
- 46% increase in mobile visits
- 16% increase in average session duration
- 140% increase in transactions
- 180% increase in revenue
- 65% increase in e-commerce conversion rate
And perhaps most importantly, we achieved our goal: a consistent, compelling customer experience on any device.
From Mobile to Global: Scaling the Experience Worldwide
But we didn’t stop there. Once mobile was optimized, our next opportunity was clear: go global.
We serve more than 100,000 voice actors in over 100 languages. Yet, our platform was presented solely in English—even though 17% of jobs posted weren’t.
That disconnect created friction. If a Spanish-speaking client wanted to hire a Spanish-speaking talent, the English-only interface was a barrier.
So we launched a fully localized Latin American Spanish version of Voices.com. We didn’t rely on Google Translate—we built a multilingual CMS and curated everything, from homepage content to search functionality, for a Spanish-speaking audience.
When users searched for terms like “funny” or “sarcastic,” results were limited to Spanish-speaking talent. Even the featured voice demos on the homepage reflected the local language and market.
Next up? French. But more than just translating content, our ambition is to create a localized experience—from interface to customer support. We want to match the professionalism of our talent with a platform that speaks their clients’ language—literally and figuratively.
Final Thoughts: Optimization Is a Strategy, Not a Feature
This journey taught me that responsive design is more than code—it’s culture. It’s a philosophy that asks: What do our users need most, and how can we serve that need, elegantly and efficiently, across every context?
Designing for mobile first didn’t just change our site. It changed our priorities, our process, and ultimately, our performance.
As a founder, I believe every digital company must earn the right to be on a customer’s home screen. That starts with delivering a fast, focused, and frictionless experience—regardless of device or geography.
Because when you meet your users where they are—and make it effortless for them to succeed—they’ll reward you. And they’ll come back.
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This was was originally presented as “Mobile Optimization: How a B2B e-commerce company used responsive design to increase revenue by 180%” at Web Optimization Summit 2014, held May 21-23, at The TimesCenter in New York City.
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MarketingSherpa. (2014). B2B web optimization: 140% surge in mobile transactions through responsive design effort [Case study]. https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/b2b-web-optimization-mobile-responsive-design