Ryden’s new website
17 September 2021
Building a new website for your business is always a challenging and intensive project. Throw in a pandemic where you can’t gather feedback from your colleagues in a relaxed group, or sit with your design consultants to work through creative ideas, and it becomes a learning experience.
Our website was static and dated, the future was uncertain, we knew we couldn’t wait until the pandemic was over as there was no end in sight. So we dived in and over the course of 12 months created a new online look for Ryden.
Of course we didn’t think it would take a year. In the early planning stages we thought we would be done in less than six months.
We kicked off by running numerous consultations with Ryden departments across all our offices, done by video call, and turned the feedback into a detailed brief. Luckily the feedback was quite consistent; don’t let the property search dominate the site as much as it had been, one click should take the visitor to the content they need, we are primarily selling our people and their project expertise, and most of all, keep it simple. No one has the time or patience to wade through content, no matter how beautiful or creative it is.
Brief prepared, web agency pitches completed (online again) and agency selected the design and build began in early 2021. When you work in professional services one of the biggest challenges is getting the professionals to give precious client-focused time to an internal project. They were going through their own challenges of keeping projects on track through a very difficult winter period. Having volunteers to act as the main contact for each team helped but it was slow going.
As a multi-service property advisory firm our departments had different requirements. While buying, selling and letting services need to present the best selection of property quickly other teams like Planning and Project Management want to reassure potential clients of the depth of their expertise. We needed to find that balance whilst retaining a consistent look and message.
By late spring the design had been agreed, the draft site built and we got to meet our design agency face-to-socially distanced face for the first time.
The next stage was the property search and integration with our existing software. Client feedback had shown the property search was one of the best aspects of our old site and they preferred it to the tools offered by some national competitors. A long period of design and testing, redesign and retesting was underway. We could have launched earlier, stuck to the project plan, but we decided meeting an internally set deadline wasn’t the most important achievement.
Summer is over and our site has launched. We believe the upgrade has improved client and visitor experience. Let us know if you like it.
