Overhaul of IDG’s Corporate Website
IDG is a global company, with offices in over 50 countries. Its website showcases IDG’s technology media brands and the marketing and data services the company offers. I worked on a complete overhaul of the corporate website, including new functionality and streamlining content that spanned over 600 pages.
The Problem
My role
The corporate site was not performing as well as expected. Users-both readers hoping to learn more about the company and potential clients-could not easily find information about IDG and its services. The typical user spent little time on the site and didn’t view more than one page.
To increase traffic and user engagement, we needed to completely redesign the site-in two months.
Working with the art director (design) and the marketing staff (content), and responding to the directives of the International CEO, President, and Vice President, I:
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Researched how users interacted with the current site
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Planned ways to attract more users to the redesigned site
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Developed ways to keep users engaged for longer periods of time
The Process
The approach to the overhaul was multifaceted.
Research
Using site analytics, we noted which pages received the most user interest and attention.
We also analyzed many of IDG’s competitors’ sites, evaluating what worked well and what we could improve on for our site. And we polled users within IDG, getting their feedback on what would enhance their interactions with the site.
Redesign
The UX team began the project by working on the desktop designs. From there, we created responsive breakpoints for both tablet and mobile, keeping in mind that these breakpoints needed to retain the desktop site’s functionality because IDG’s mobile/tablet audience was growing.
Over the course of the redesign, the UX team:
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replaced all top-level pages and most sub-pages with new designs,
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updated navigation,
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implemented the marketing team’s new language,
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incorporated the art director’s notes on look and feel,
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and applied the new style to any existing pages not slated for complete redesign.
Refine
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Certain pages required special attention as the redesign progressed.
HOMEPAGE
Working with the art director and messaging from the project stakeholders, I created an eye-catching homepage that would be simple for readers and clients to interact with, directing attention to IDG’s varied technology media and services.
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PRODUCT LIBRARY
I significantly refined the library to make it much easier for users to find what they were looking for and display results in a simple, elegant way. I completely revised the filtering functionality, making it super intuitive and easy to use on mobile. I removed images that were no longer helping to sell products and transitioned to a beautifully styled typography-only page.
PROMO VIDEO
I produced this video for the homepage. As the producer I picked video clips, worked with the art director getting all the typography just right. Then working with the video editor explained what we wanted to see for animation and editing. I also researched and found the music for the video.
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Outcome
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The redesigned IDG site was a huge success with respect to traffic and engagement metrics.
In the weeks after the redesigned site launched, traffic increased progressively, going from a few thousand page views a month to well over 30,000 page views per month, an improvement the team was very pleased with, given that this is a corporate non-commercial website.
Time spent on the site went up, from less than 30 seconds and 1 page viewed to 1.5 minutes and 3 pages viewed.
Stakeholders were impressed with the performance of the updated website.
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