Working in collaboration with Sterling-Rice Group (“SRG”), an agency based in Boulder, CO, we analyzed, consolidated, planned, designed, engineered, tested, populated, translated, trained, and–breath–delivered a feature and information-rich website. Ultimately, the new website was re-tailored for accessibility, navigability, consistency, manageability, and growth opportunities with some added effort to provide users with healthy snack ideas when you’re on the go!
Why NEWMEDIA?
After accepting and analyzing bids from multiple website design/development shops, SRG contracted with NEWMEDIA as a leading local agency for the Denver website design project because of our extensive knowledge of Drupal and experience working with other agencies. SRG recognized the benefit of NEWMEDIA’s ability to work cohesively with other agencies to create innovative websites for clients.
The Challenge
The project with SRG and ABC was a big one in which there were many pieces to the puzzle in order to overhaul and update the ABC website. This meant collaboration had to happen between the SRG team, the ABC team, and the NEWMEDIA team. Each of the topics below had to be covered by the NEWMEDIA team…
- Site Replication (Multi-site): Needed to reuse the work for 3 nearly identical sites.
- Data Imports, Migrations, and Content Entry: In order to meet the launch deadline, content imports had to occur during development.
- Mobile Experience. Mobile required a different experience, requiring some adaptation.
- Target Audience and Content Segmentation: Each site has 5 distinct audiences which required segmentation.
Timeline
This website project required a very aggressive development timeline — it had to be done before a major holiday. When it was determined that ABC required the North American site to be launched approximately four (4) weeks before our original intended launch date, NEWMEDIA pulled additional internal resources. All of us worked aggressively and successfully to meet the accelerated launch date dictated by the client’s National Marketing Campaign.
Results and Summary of Responses
Multi-Site Functionality
Each site targets multiple audiences with varying content that is similarly structured but purposed for each. Through a meticulous discovery process, NEWMEDIA was able to establish a standard for the web design and development of the areas that would remain consistent across the International Sites largely reducing the overall timeline for completion of all four sites (North America, UK, Germany, and French) and achieving a consistent user experience across the sites.
Data and Content Importing
The NEWMEDIA team developed numerous CSV spreadsheets that aided the client in organizing their content for each specific section on the North American site. By doing so, we were able to reduce the volume of content that needed to be added through the CMS after launch.
Mobile Friendliness
The client needed a separate experience for the mobile users, requiring us to use an adaptive theme so we could tailor the experience to each user experience.
Segmentation
The NEWMEDIA meme created a comprehensive baseline for consistent design and development for each audience on the North American site (Consumers, Food Professionals, and Health Professionals).
With the development of all four sites into one universal system, the client’s ongoing administration of the site has been reduced significantly. This also meant we were able to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. The biggest benefit, however, is that users visiting the site benefit from a more comprehensive and user-friendly experience.
The added challenge of the aggressive timeline brought out the best in our team and demonstrated the team’s dedication to serving our clients. The importance of rolling Quality Assurance was obvious during due to the aggressive timeline. The meticulous Quality Assurance required by the Project prompted an evolution of our testing and communication methods that will benefit all current and future clients.
Project Team:
- Brandon Williams – Back-End Developer
- Rick Manelius – Project Manager
- Jo Hoffman – Project Manager
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