Engineering trust signals that prove domain expertise
for an IT and cybersecurity company in Portugal.
Client
Rootline
TIMELINE
Figma, Coolors, Brand Trust Score
Tools
9 Days
Role
1 of 3 UX/UI Designers
The Brief
Rootline offered IT, cybersecurity, and specialist solutions to small business owners in Portugal. Yet their website had no client reviews, no visible credentials, and no indication that any of this was built for someone without a technical background. In a field built entirely on credibility, the trust signals simply weren't there.
This project was a full website and brand redesign, from competitive analysis and usability testing to a responsive multi-page prototype and business owner handoff.
A Market with Rising Demand
Data confirmed that interest in cybersecurity in Portugal hit an all-time high in November 2025, driven by growing concerns in the age of AI. For Rootline, the redesign was the vehicle to capture it.
Design Process
Five small business owners shared two dominating insights: they were not looking for technical depth but for confidence and wanting to know that a company understood their needs, a gap that the affinity diagram confirmed. Competitive analysis reinforced the opportunity: every IT and cybersecurity site reviewed was built for technical buyers, leaving the next door village shops and small enterprises that Rootline was actually built to serve with nothing that spoke their language. Further, a feature comparison review found that case studies, customer reviews, and resources page were standard across the domain, yet none of it existed on the Rootline site.
Benchmarked against 3 competitors:
[White Space] No competitor targets small business owners
[Case Studies] Missing client projects to demonstrate real-world expertise
[Testimonials] Absence of social proof from real businesses
[FAQ Section] No plain-language information for non-technical visitors
Design Decisions
The research pointed to four key decisions that would close the credibility gap:
[Niche Definition] Plain-language descriptions and a dedicated FAQ made it immediately clear that Rootline was built for small business owners, not technical buyers.
[Trust Signals] A dedicated founder page and use cases surfaced throughout gave non-technical visitors the social proof needed to feel confident before making contact.
[Visual Identity] A considered typographic system and familiar visual language made Rootline feel approachable to a non-technical audience without losing professional credibility.
[Contact Friction] A simplified contact flow removed unnecessary steps at the exact moment a visitor had almost decided to reach out.
Research and early design work I developed for the Rootline project, spanning competitive benchmarking, brand analysis, user flow, and wireframes across the FAQ and About pages at low to mid-fidelity.
Project Outcome
Rootline achieved a Brand Trust Score of 67 after the redesign, up from 42 on the original site, crossing the industry benchmark of 65 and shifting the estimated conversion impact from -2.4% to +4.3%.
The prototype was handed off to the business owner and is currently in development.