BDA Website
Project Overview
As a ten-year-old website, BDA’s corporate website was both outdated and off-brand. So much had changed for the company during that time, from updated branding to new high-profile clients to expansion into EMEA markets. We needed to build a new website that both reflected the company’s growth and displayed all the information for potential future clients in an attractive, user friendly experience.
Execution
The website was requested to have 20+ individual pages, so I began by creating a site map to determine the most logical navigation for the site.
I then worked with the Marketing and Executive teams to begin wireframing several “parent” page layouts that would be used throughout the site. After the wireframes for the website were established, I began creating the overall look and feel for the website, implementing BDA’s new brand guidelines and focussing on engaging imagery.
Once the layouts and general look approved, I spent the next several weeks designing all the pages for the website, including specifications on animations and how different features would interact.
Upon final approval of the pixel-perfect mockups, I worked with the third party development team and relayed all relevant information so that the final product would mimic the approved vision.
Challenge
Both the executive team and I agreed to use background imagery on a majority of the website pages. I realized this needed to be done strategically in order to preserve legibility and not overly disrupt the background image. I petitioned for a bold font weight to improve contrast and legibility, however, the team wanted to use a thin font weight for the text.
SOLUTION
Understanding that the team was set on their decision, I compromised with the request by adding a darker overlay to the background images and a drop shadow on all text, increasing the legibility. This disrupted the image visibility more than I had hoped for, but the solution pleased the team and still allowed for all necessary components to remain on the page.
Teams Involved
DESIGN
MARKETING
EXECUTIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Result
BDA launched a new interactive website that reflected the full extent of the company’s achievements, the breadth of its clientele, and world-wide influence. With the website being so content-rich, it was designed and presented in a way that made navigation intuitive for end-users.
Shortly after launch, the site was nominated for Best Website Homepage and won both a gold W3 award and bronze Stevie award.
