The need for redesign stemmed from a number of business drivers for dys architecture: they had recently added several partners to the management of the firm; they had moved to new larger offices; and they had undertaken a new marketing initiative to re-brand and re-focus the firm. To properly reflect all of these changes, they decided to redesign their site.
ADGi was invited to work on this project as a part of a virtual studio with emplus communications (who completed the visual design work) and Engine Digital (who completed the code development and CMS work).
The Process
After initial client meetings and a presentation by the market research firm, we determined that:
- The vast majority (+95%) of site visitors arrive at the site by entering the URL
- The purpose for coming to the site is, in this order, to review the DYS portfolio, to learn more about the firm, to find out about the partners
- The story behind the various projects, the firm, and the people is as important as the ‘facts’
In discussing the priorities and what we knew of user needs we knew we had to focus on the portfolio. We also knew we needed a means to highlight the story behind the facts, without getting in the way of the facts and the traditional way that architects discuss their projects. The solution needed to be bold and creative yet not flashy. It needed to stay within the character of the firm (high integrity, confident, casual, yet somewhat conservative) but also speak to the new branding.
The Solution
To bring all of these pieces together the solution provides a flat, matrix-driven structure rather than the typical hierarchical structure. After typing in the URL users are taken immediately to a page highlighting a specific project. From this page, the user can then navigate through other projects in similar categories or can go to a project index page, that shows thumbnails of all of the projects and also allows the user to filter projects by criteria such as Location and Completion. The site went live late in 2007, and is still in use today.
