This project involved setting the tone for the online element of the business, comprising of initial scope, platform, payment gateways, shipping options and look and feel.  The design was purposefully simple, but clean and modern.  Care was taken over the design of the checkout pages, further simplifying the options available to make is easy for users to add products to their cart and checkout without the added confusion of extra options.

Advice was also given on e-commerce principles, how to manage the store, how to accept payment and security.  This was all built into the final site along with a helpful integration with Google Analytics to allow insight into the use of the site, which sections perform and where users have issues in order to help future improvements.

The site is built using the WordPress content management system which allows museum staff to easily manage and add new content.

Keen to get a return on their investment in terms of content generation, analytics played a part in this project, with site activity being monitored as a means to determine future areas of content to concentrate on.

The firm has just produced a new identity and hard copy brochure which needed a web site with which to complement them.  The first step was to ensure the new branding was correctly represented to present a consistent experience between online and offline channels.  The brochure determined the theme and tone the site needed to take and this was convered to an online design that resulted in a clean, simple interface that allows people to navigate easily around the content.

The main section of the site is an online catalogue highlighting the products available and invoke a strong call to action in order to get in touch with the firm for ordering.  Much of the firm’s business is bespoke so it was decided that an initial site would not cater for e-commerce.

A need to determine usage was identified.  This was satisfied using a combination of Google Analytics to see user levels, user paths and traffic sources.  It was complemented by the ability to download the firm’s brochure which requires a simple registration form completed allowing the sales team to follow up on leads.

This photo-led capsule site was built to replace the final news-focused site.  Its purpose is to highlight the games the Claymores played over the years and the players who committed to the Claymores fortunes.

Every game from their 10 seasons is covered in a simple site design that is simple to navigate.  Also included are statistics and player rosters.

Fans of the team are directed to a Facebook page where they can connect with fellow fans and share memories of the many good times shared at Claymores football games.

While the site is only a single page, it uses the jQuery javascript library to create the illusion of multiple pages with near instant page switch.

Some of the features of this site include:

• Bing map integration to show the location of the exhibition
• jQuery javascript library to create the page switching effect
• Image galleries to highlight examples of work that will be on display
• Methods of contacting the artists

The site was kept purposefully simple to keep the focus on the content.

Solution

The main asset here are Mark’s artwork which is what the site needed to focus on.  The simple design that was created was focussed on highlighting a selection of recent artwork on a continuous loop.  By concentrating on the red in Mark’s logo and effective use of highlights, the site is given a luxurious feel.

A key focus was the ability to simply sell prints and cards with minimal investment in infrastructure.  By using Paypal tools, it was relatively simple to tie artwork for sale with a shopping cart system that deals with all the hard lifting of a small e-commerce site.

The site is managed by the WordPress content management system which makes it easy for the client to maintain the site content.  This is tied in with Google Analytics to provide tracking and statistics for the site.

This dual-language site – English and French – was design to provide a clean, simple interface to focus on the content on the site.  The home page is image led in order to create an impact and highlight the sections of the site.

This design was conceived, pitched and implemented within the WordPress content management system so that the client can update and maintain the content.

The firm recognised that with different staff working in different ways using different information, that one size no longer fits all when designing an intranet portal.  The concept of user-customisable pages has been around on the internet for a while, but the emergence of client side tools such as the jQuery javascript library have made it possible to recreate and adapt this concept for the enterprise.

Platform/innovation

Shepherd and Wedderburn has created a widget platform, MyShepwedd, which allows users full control of the content they see on their home page.  This marks the first time the firm has allowed users as much freedom to decide which content they consume.

MyShepwedd has been developed internally with no capital cost and using existing resources.  Our development team has designed the platform to be quick, lightweight and to run well even on low-specification machines.  The platform is built using PHP for the application code, Microsoft SQL Server as the backend database and AJAX and jQuery to perform the functionality without the use of page-reloads.

The platform hosts a set of widgets that can connect to any of our enterprise systems either directly through SQL, or through the use of Web Services to extract appropriate, relevant data from these repositories.  Users are given the ability to customise the display of these widgets further through widget-level options.  This can be as simple as determining the number of rows of data to display, or more complex filtering based on a number of criteria, including location and practice group.

Examples of current widgets come from a number of our systems – financial management, CRM, knowledge resources, current awareness – include recent matter worked on, WiP alerts, CRM updates as well as external content such as news and weather feeds.  The widgets are user-aware so are able to bring back information of direct relevance to the currently logged-in user based on their geographic location, practice group, rank or profit centre – for example matters the user has recorded time on, changes or notes against contacts they know, or location based office events.  We have found that this increases the usefulness to the end user, as they don’t have to sift through data that is of little interest to them to get to what they need.

We have retained control over a limited number of widgets in order to allow the firm to push important, firm-wide content to users.

As part of this project, we have taken the opportunity to implement Microsoft Search Server Express, again at little capital cost.  For the first time, this has enabled end users to search across all enterprise repositories to find information that may otherwise have remained hidden.  The filtering capabilities this provides have proved popular with users allowing them to perform a search and then refine it to display accurate, concise results.  Through extensive customisation of the search results, we have been able to enhance the display of results based on its source. This allows access to a number of actions.  Matter based results, for example, allow actions such as summaries of both the matter and client, quick access into the CRM system to contacts for that organisation and direct entry to our financial system for that matter.  These actions have combined to save considerable fee-earner time locating information.

Goals

The goals of this project were three-fold:

1. Highlight the vast array of information we, as a firm, hold electronically, and make better use of it to aid our transactional work;
2. Increase the efficiency of end users’ day to day work by giving them ready access to information they need on a regular basis;
3. Create a platform on which we can build in the future.

Results and feedback

Since the platform was launched firm wide, feedback has been universally positive.  As expected, younger members of the firm have taken to MyShepwedd very quickly and have been actively customising their pages to suit their needs.  As a whole, take up has been high with around 70% of end users customising their pages from the standard template pushed to all users on launch within the first month.

Analytics tracking page loads have fallen since fewer clicks are required to locate relevant information.  Correspondingly, the number of user sessions have increased showing that users are spending more time interacting with firm information using MyShepwedd as a base.

Benefits/added value

Significant production and distribution cost savings have been made through a number of hard-copy management reports being pushed electronically using widgets to appropriate staff with security inherited from our practice management system.  This has resulted in reduced printing costs for weekly and monthly reports that are now pushed electronically.

Feedback sessions have garnered interesting feedback both on how end users are using the platform, and to efficiencies it is creating.  Giving users the ability to customise their intranet experience has enabled some staff to become more productive as they spend less time trawling firm systems for information relating to their matters.  For research too, time has become more productive through our Search Server Express implementation as there is not a single place to search all information silos.  Within the search results page, the ability to perform the same search on external sources such as PLC, WestLaw and LexisNexis has proved valuable both from a time perspective as well as from a risk management point of view.

Time was spent before launch liaising with partners and knowledge champions in each practice group to ensure that content provided by widgets was useful to them, and to gather views on additional content that would benefit their daily working life.  Additionally, we spent time scoping what each practice group would like to see on day one as their standard set of widgets which proved effective in gaining valuable buy-in at all levels of the firm.

Partner Joanna Boag-Thomson comments “It’s great, we’re very excited about the delivery of information in this widget based format”.

The MyShepwedd platform has been live for one month and already we are witnessing significant benefits in terms of information usage and access, but also in terms of requests for new content to be made available in widget form.  Usage statistics from the first month of operation suggest that end users have grasped the concept and are willing to buy-in to it and use the platform to improve their access to information to help their working lives.

Solution

The focus for this site was to make its design striking, yet easy to access.  A fixed width design was chosen, to ensure that the site appeared as close to identical on as many machines as possible.   The design was loosely based around the firm’s business card design, with a striking Udakka logo.

Simple navigation through the content was added, to complement the content panels.  The font was selected to be easy on the eye and large enough to be comfortable to read.

Selecting an image for the background of the site proved challenging without the image dominating.  Many images were tried, and the selected image had a number of filters applied to ensure it enhanced the content rather than detract from it.

At the same time as the redesign, it was decided to upgrade the content management system the web site was running on.  A new installation of WordPress was used which gave the flexibility to add more functionality to the site, and makes updating the site simple for staff.

The Group had an existing web site but it had not been used to its full potential.  The site was beginning to show its age and was in need of an overhaul.

Solution

The first priority was to give members of the group control over their web site.  To that end, a content management system was installed to provide access to add and edit content, and to maintain event information.

A simple site design was created with an emphasis on striking photographic images to highlight the goals of the group.  The yellow and blue of the EU logo were used to brand the site using text effects to create the title bar.

A members area was created in order to share information and documents to members only.  It is planned that this will reduce the amount of hard copy information that needs to be distributed.

Events are now set up online, giving members the ability to register their intent to attend meetings or seminars.  This reduces the administrative need to distribute invitations and monitor replies.  The event planner can simply, log in and print off a delegate list.

Given that the site has been extensively overhaulled it was necessary to pay attention to the site’s search engine presence.   As well as building the site to comply with best practice guidelines for accessibility, the site has been built to be easily readable by search engines.  Additionally, the site provides a sitemap directly to search engines to inform them of the presence of new or altered pages.

Knowing who is using the site is valuable information for any site owner.  Google Analytics has been implemented to understand the site’s users and how they are using the site.