Over the past couple of months, we’ve been diligently working on a complete overhaul of our agency website. And last Thursday, we quietly deployed the final outcome of that two-month process. We had three key goals in mind before we got started: a scalable platform, a responsive design, and a better format for showing client work.
Scalability
At the heart of the re-design, was an overall goal of building a site that served as a foundation to build on in the future. We didn’t want to feel the need to perpetually re-design the site in order to accommodate new content, or new pages. Rather, we wanted a greater level of fluidity, and scalability within the site. We turned to WordPress in order to help make this happen. Now, all pages are editable within the CMS, allowing anyone in the office to log into the site, and make modifications to site content at any time.
Responsive Design
When we launched our last site, roughly a year and a half ago, we did it in a two-stage process: we launched our “main site” then later, designed and built a “mobile” version of the site. Over the past year since, the idea of responsive design has become a key principle when designing for the web, and we wanted to make sure we applied that method of thinking to our site as well. In so doing, we’ve allowed users – regardless of their device – complete access to our site, and all it’s content. The site will simply re-size itself, and adapt to the screen size of each user. This not only makes the user’s browsing experience significantly better, but it keeps us from having numerous sites, all needing to be updated individually as time goes on.
Client Work
In our previous iteration of the site, we had a “work” section, wherein client work was shown by client, and within those clients by campaigns. Now, we certainly do our fair-share of campaign work, however we often have requests to do individual projects as well. Within the organization scheme of the previous site, showing a new iPad app for example, wasn’t practical because it didn’t fit into the way projects were being organized. This meant that great work was being left off the site, which we certainly weren’t excited about. Within this new site, we’ve built out a “work” section, that allows users to filter work by project type (interactive, print, environmental, and motion). As they make their selection, work gets filtered out, leaving only what users have selected visible on screen. Further, this format allows us to not only show large campaigns, but also great individual projects.
We’re excited about the new site, and hope you find it markedly better than the previous one. Despite launching is last week, we’re still making ongoing updates and revisions, but please feel free to share feedback in the comments – especially good feedback!
If social networks have personalities, Facebook might be an extrovert and Google+ might be an introvert. Not to say one is better than the other, but that there are now competitive options for how people connect with their online networks – each with a distinct approach for doing so.
Morrison is a hybrid marketing communications firm whose expertise is in helping clients market to intelligent audiences in complex marketplaces. Everything we do is driven to make sales happen. We call ourselves “Sales Acceleration Marketers.”