Many companies are paying attention to the social web today as a means of connecting with audiences, and revealing who they are as people. When it came time to breath new life into the site of a major data handling brand, the good people at Espresso made Oddly Studios their build partner for expertise in search engine optimization and social media.

The biggest challenge in this case was building a site that fit nicely within the new direction of the company while still making use of the extensive content already existing on the client site. Additionally, search engine optimization should be improved among the vast amount of content already in place.

The Architecture Work

To handle the many layers, we came up with elaborate wireframe designs and did a first round review, labeling all of the content areas. All of this was printed out into books and circulated to the working teams to create absolute clarity in communications. The entire site was created in a massive flow diagram before a single line of code was written, allowing us to eliminate any possibility of missing or misdirected links (a problem that had been lowering search engine readiness)

A Fresh New Design

With the preliminary work done, Oddly got down to the fun of breathing life into the fresh new design. Where the old design was dated and non-uniform, a scent was created that carries throughout the site. Static pages were replaced by a presentation layer that would load the existing content, but reveal in slick transitions, vibrant colors, and pleasant fonts. Great attention was paid to user experience, and a pleasing flow to all content.

Social Media

We also helped highlight the personality of the people that work at the company, through photography. Galleries were implemented that pulled from Flickr, and updates on Twitter and Facebook would allow those interested to keep up to date minute by minute.

The new site is one that is filled with vibrant color and imagery. Navigation, while once cryptic and non-uniform, became simple and pleasing, with sensory feedback provided for every actionable item. The content flows seamlessly through transitions that lead the user to the information they need. Most importantly, what was once static information became a way of revealing the fun nature of the company itself, and the people who work there.

Consumers vote for companies and those who make them function as much as they do for products and services.