Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Creative Edge Talent Voucher Story


Article as it appeared on Creative Edge.Eu Website on 11th June 2014:

A Creative Edge Talent Voucher was provided to Cox Power Architects (Mayo, West of Ireland) to re-design their website to be responsive and to enable better targeting of international clients and export markets. The re-design was conducted by inTandem web design (Sligo, West of Ireland).

Assignment

Cox Power Architects are an architecture practice based in Westport, Co Mayo. The assignment they applied for was to create a new online presence that adapts to all modern devices and is designed so that it can be managed, controlled and updated by them going forward. Their previous website was in need of a makeover and as a design business they understood that their visual brand was of utmost importance.

They were experiencing problems with their existing website including the following:

They wanted their new website to come across as professional, innovative and interesting to all users even those who may not be as familiar with the area of architecture. They felt their old website did not reflect, as much as it should, the creative side of their business.

Projects - Tourism page of coxpower.ie developed by inTandem web design

Projects – Tourism page of coxpower.ie developed by inTandem web design

Process and reason for selecting the talent

Cox Power Architects reviewed the MyCreativeEdge website and selected inTandem web design (Carolin Collins) for development of their new website. They were impressed with inTandem’s portfolio as shown on MyCreativeEdge and further exploration of inTandem’s work on the company’s own site confirmed this view.

They made contact with inTandem prior to applying for the Talent Voucher to gauge their interest and availability to proceed with the project should their application be successful. They felt from the start that Carolin understood and explained the issues / problems they were experiencing with their current website and also understood the direction in which they wanted their new website to go. This confirmed to Cox Power Architects that inTandem were the right talent to go with for the new website.

The benefits to inTandem from working with Cox Power Architects included the ability to:

Implementation

The assignment was carried out through web-meetings, phone calls and e-mails. It is worth noting that Cox Power Architects and inTandem did not actually meet face to face. Their relatively remote geographical locations did not prove a barrier to carrying out this assignment and in fact their respective offices could have been in different countries. They both felt that this reinforced the concept behind the Creative Edge project that creative services can be traded easily from regional locations.

Once Cox Power Architects had reviewed the problems with their existing website and their needs and expectations from the new website, they then gathered the information / images etc. that inTandem would need to develop the site.

inTandem provided a very detailed client needs analysis document for Cox Power Architects to complete which included an analysis of comparable websites for review and information on their business objectives.

Home page of www.coxpower.ie developed by inTandem web design

Home page of www.coxpower.ie developed by inTandem web design

When inTandem had received all the information, they began designing layout options / folder structures for the front page. Once they had an agreed structure for the website they were able to commence coding and pagination and re-design the site. The ultimate cost of the website re-design was somewhat greater than the value of the Talent Voucher with Cox Power Architects covering the difference.

Conclusions

Without the MyCreativeEdge directory, Cox Power Architects felt they would not have been aware of inTandem and would have found it difficult to know where to start in their search, beyond their immediate locale. They felt it was of great benefit to be able to scan a number of profiles quickly purely on a ‘first impression’ basis before drilling down into their own sites for more detail.

The benefits Cox Power Architects will gain from their new website are:

They found inTandem very professional and a pleasure to work with and are very pleased with their new website.

© Copyright Cox Power Architects. All Rights Reserved.

Website Design & Development by inTandem