A major site redevelopment underpinned by user research.
Telecom has undergone significant changes in it’s business in the last few years and Shift has been a key partner in shaping their users digital interactions with them.
The Telecom website is one of the most visited in New Zealand; over one hundred thousand customers visit it each month. The site had not undergone a major design change for nearly ten years – an eternity in the online space. Telecom engaged Shift to help them transform the website into a modern, flexible sales channel.
Shift had already worked with Telecom to translate their new brand identity into a digital experience, the next stage was a much larger fundamental redevelopment of the web platform along with the information architecture and visual design.
With such a large site, a sizeable team internally and externally was needed. This presented a significant challenge of ensuring consistency, understanding and coverage over an extended period of time.
With perhaps the widest range of users of any site in New Zealand, understanding user needs and journeys was a key challenge to conquer in order to unlock the new site architecture.
Shift’s information architects worked closely with Telecom’s project team to design user interactions that enabled customers to access common tasks with single clicks. Intuitive interfaces were matched with an easily understood, thoroughly user-tested content structure. Central to Shift’s thinking was the need for a flexible toolset that could adapt with the constantly changing product range of modern telecommunications.
The website's visual design maintained strict adherence to Telecom’s digital branding guidelines (also developed by Shift). Everything from the varied uses of the company’s logo through to individual product images was carefully planned to ensure that Telecom’s vibrant brand was used consistently in every aspect of the website’s visual design.
A strong emphasis was placed on interactive elements of the site, including:
Shift’s developers built standards-compliant HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to ensure that Telecom’s new website would be accessible by the widest possible set of internet browsers and device types. By avoiding the use of proprietary technologies such as Flash, Shift was able to produce a dynamic, engaging user experience without limiting the reach. The core engine of the website was built on the Vignette platform by systems integrator Datacom. Shift’s developers worked on-site with Datacom’s technical team to ensure that the client-side code was integrated successfully into the back-end content management system.
The new website went live during September 2011. Business owners and users alike welcomed the changes with a chorus of approval. For Shift, the launch of the new site was the culmination of more than a year of information architecture, visual design, usability testing, and development effort. And we couldn’t be happier with the results.
