The other finalists in the category were Alison Green of WebWeaver for The Gathering Archives, and Jared Gulian for Moon over Martinborough. Sorry guys!

What makes the ONYAs so special is that the judging panel was a team of top web professionals – Alex Wright (NY Times), Brian Fling (pinch/zoom), Bek Hodgson (Etsy), Thomas Fuchs and Amy Hoy (slash7), Russ Weakley (Max Design), Rachel McAlpine (Contented), Donna Spencer (Maadmob) and Jason Ryan (State Services Commission) – woah!

A little bit of history…

This website first went public in June 1995 as the result of a major project for my degree in Broadcasting and Communications.

I chose ‘the web’ – over a project grounded in radio, television or film – as I saw the amazing potential it had in store as a broadcasting (or what I then called ‘narrowcasting’) medium.

The paper was entitled “Zef’s Exploration into the World Wide Web’ and is an interesting insight to the dawn of the modern internet we all know well today.

I then wrote:

“…I’ve come to believe that it (the internet) could be regarded as a life-force all of its own. Not of the ‘artificial intelligence’ sort that clogs science fiction novels, but an organic intelligence, sourced purely from ‘in the flesh’ internet creators, users and players themselves – human-kind”.

Looking back, I guess I was hinting at ‘Social Media’?

So, the birth of this website was a music e-zine (entitled ‘Global Groove’) and it has essentially remained as an online magazine ever since. In its heyday this site was drawing so much overseas traffic it would frequently overload the bandwidth entering Dunedin and would be unceremoniously cut-off!

Had I been more entrepreneurial I would have realised this was actually an opportunity, not a hindrance.

Oh well.

Related blog: When the Web Was Young

And now…

My website, in its current form, is about sharing my ideas, thoughts and experiences as a web industry professional.

This partially came about through my frustration of the ‘wall of silence’ which, sadly, used to surround many of my peers and the web industry as a whole in the early 2000s.

In my experience, knowledge-sharing back then was uncommon. In fact, withholding knowledge was actually used by some as some sort of power-trip.

So when I branched into User Experience I was, in most cases, forced to look overseas for inspiration…

I owe a lot to Jared Spool’s UIE newsletter (back then it was sent to me, on paper!), Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Alan Cooper’s book ‘About Face’, and Lou Rosenfeld & Peter Morville for their book ‘Information Architecture for the World Wide Web‘.

As you know, I’m not the type to sit on that exciting pool of knowledge. I believe that by sharing what I know and what I’m working on, it helps to make my local web industry better and stronger.

Today, it’s really great to see that the User Experience community in this country is one of relative openness and healthy discussion. I’ve learnt a lot from my colleagues in recent years – including those I’ve trained and mentored, who, in turn, have inspired and taught me as well.

Without openness much of the content on my blog would not be possible, so I would like to acknowledge the following people who have helped make this website an ONYAs success…

Colin Phillips and Emma Martin: Some of the people in the early days who did share their knowledge and ideas!

Mason Pratt, Provoke Solutions: My employer from 2004 – 2008. He allowed me to write about client work and share insights to the Provoke User Experience team.

Emily Loughnan, Clicksuite: My current employer, who shares my belief that sharing ideas is a good thing!

The User Experience community: You should know who you are!

My 1001 regular subscribers: I wish you would comment more but I know you’re out there! The statistics don’t lie!

What’s in store…

Life is a bit crazy for me right now, but when I have time again I’ve been thinking of a project I’d love your help with.

It’ll involve understanding our own industry better – ever tried creating personas for the (types of) people you work with every day?

That’s a big clue.

Stay posted…

Click Suite // Auckland Museum: The Pollinator from Click Suite on Vimeo.

Using touch-screen technology visitors could tap into a world of pollination.

Auckland Museum and Click Suite took three common New Zealand insects – the honey bee, monarch and native hoverfly – and set them loose in an amazing virtual rose garden. The Pollinator, designed and developed by Click Suite, was an interactive game within the exhibition.

It allowed visitors to tap on a virtual rose which would then attract the nearest flying insect.

Their goal was to pollinate six roses in a row. Achieving this took a bit of knowledge, timing and strategy to ensure their roses would be successfully pollinated every time. To discover which insect was the most effective pollinator, visitors could listen a narrator’s description of each insect while viewing it in crystal-clear 3D.

The never-ending rose garden could also be navigated in spectacular 3-D and allowed visitors to take a peek inside each rose to see the pollinator at work. The large touch-screen allowed visitors to pan and zoom around the gorgeous rose garden with the curious insects following them around as they explored.

See Also: Tap Dancing on Paper (how it was made).

In our industry it’s common knowledge that a DYO (or “Design Your Own“) website is one of the trickiest things a web/interactive/design company can undertake.

First of all, paid work always comes first. So despite your best efforts the DYO falls by the wayside, only to just get going again before another paid job sweeps everyone off their feet.

Then you have internal wrangles – we are all “the client” – as well as “the experts” – as well as, well, “everything else!”

So that’s why the Click Suite website redesign, in dribs and drabs, took around 12 months.

I led the Strategy and Information Design.

Here’s a reminder of what the old site looked like:

CLICK SUITE HOMEPAGE (2008)

Where it got to now isn’t a happy accident…

BASED ON A STRATEGY

Click Suite decided to “walk the talk” and kicked-off the DYO process by working with me to create their own ‘Interactive Strategy’.

The Strategy included:

• A vision statement for the company.
• An analysis of where we believe Click Suite sit in the marketplace (and where they want to get to).
• Profiles of their diverse target audience, their goals (and how Click Suite will meet them).
• How Click Suite will measure the success of the new website.

You can design a website or interactive without a strategy, but having one makes the intention of the website more focused and with purpose.

Here’s what it looked like…

VISION

So why have a website? Is it just an online brochure? A portfolio? A place for people to find our email address? Well, all of those, but what makes it special?

Click Suite’s vision statement was about making it clear that they do (great) interactive media and want to “wow!” people with their work and ideas.

MARKET DIFFERENTIATORS

Click Suite picked six similar companies in NZ and I conducted a competitive analysis (based on each company’s website presence).

It was clear that the Click Suite website (built over six years ago) was showing its age. Most of its competitors had freshly designed websites. But despite this, in terms of content and services, all the websites felt fairly similar.

WHERE THEY CAN BE DIFFERENT

It’s tempting to be different just for the sake of it, but in some cases it’s OK to be like everyone else. For example, it is important to establish to the user they are in the right place and what they can expect to find, so the new website has an upfront explanation of what Click Suite does.

I also identified areas where Click Suite can be a little bit different and where they could be very different from the competition.

GAP ANALYSIS

TARGET AUDIENCE

Who will visit the website? Click Suite works closely with their customers every day so already had a good understanding of their audience.

Industries they frequently work with include Museums, Government, Business, Ad Agencies and Software/Web companies. The roles of the people inside these companies include Curators, Communications Managers, Marketing Managers and Ad Agency executives.

Their ideal client is someone prepared to try something new. They want their business/offering to stand out from the crowd. Typically the Managing Director of a company, this person organises and takes responsibility for the effective operation of their organisation as well as its overall strategic direction.

GOALS

I listed the questions customers were likely to ask (in their heads) when they visit the Click Suite website.

For example:

• Who is Click Suite?
• So, what do they do?
• Who have they worked with?
• What does their work look like?
• How does it stack up against the best?
• OK, so lots of awards, but how has their work been successful? (for their clients).
• Can I trust this company to deliver?

The website attempts to answer all these questions.

SUCCESS MEASURES

How will Click Suite know their redesign has succeeded?

Here’s a few of the factors I recommended they measure:

• You get inquiries via the website.
• Engagements for work via website referrals.
• People say “I saw that on your website”.
• Subscriptions to their newsletter.
• They get comments on their blog.

I also measured success by conducting usability testing on our site and monitoring usage statistics. One such measurement is Google PageRank.

The old Click Suite website had average visibility on Google with a PageRank of five. To ensure good exposure in New Zealand a ranking of six is desirable, and for international a rank of seven or higher.

I’m happy to report that the new site now ranks a six. Their latest goal is to get to a seven (the same as Trade Me).

PROMOTION

The old Click Suite website had a small ‘foot print’ on the web with average visibility. I changed their thinking to view the website as part of a much wider network – the world wide web.

You’ll now also find Click Suite on twitter, Vimeo and LinkedIn.

CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS

Click Suite set its designer loose on some early concepts. The themes were ‘play’, ‘learn’ and ‘explore’.

EXPLORING THEMES

ROADMAP

The roadmap is like a high-level plan split into three stages of work. Each stage has a focus – with an explanation of how it will add value to both the business and customers.

The focus of the first stage was to show that “Click Suite has got great ideas”. Future phases intend to add more detail about Click Suite’s team and services and provide the ability for visitors to add their own contributions to the website.

INFORMATION DESIGN

The Information Design started with the concept of allowing the user to switch between different modes of navigation (Relationship, Pictures, Text).

Here’s an early concept for the ‘relationship’ mode…

EXPLORING NAVIGATION APPROACHES

But Click Suite decided this was too ambitious with the limited time and people available, so ‘Plan B’ kicked in.

Plan B focused more on the portfolio viewer – which allows you explore projects in sequential order or filter the portfolio to view projects within a certain industry (e.g. Museums) or technology (e.g. Touchscreens).

HOMEPAGE PAPER PROTOTYPE

VISUAL DESIGN

The visual design had to showing off Click Suite’s work as well as complement a variety of visual styles ranging from 1995 to the present.

The swirly animations help guide your way through the new website – these were hand-drawn and are now extending their way into our document templates, presentations and, eventually, our business cards.

VISUAL DESIGN MOCKUP

DEVELOPMENT

If you’re technically inclined you might notice that the website is created in Adobe Flash, but it acts a lot like an HTML website!

The back button remembers where you’ve been, you can bookmark specific pages and lots of other clever stuff invisible to the naked eye.

USABILITY TESTING

Here are the results of the first round of usability testing on a working prototype of the website.

We tested the site with both staff and customers – setting them tasks followed by a questionnaire to gauge their impressions. We then worked to fix the issues and move the green line to a rating of four and above.

USABILITY TEST ANALYSIS (SURVEY)

THE RESULT

So how did Click Suite go with the DYO?

Only time will tell and Click Suite would love your feedback!

While it was tempting to design a wildly creative website with whacky navigation and hidden content, the new website mixes a bit of the traditional with a bit of the new.

The site is visually rich, but still looks and acts like a website. The large portfolio images can be presented in a variety of formats – still images, animation or video.

The case study text underneath each project has the flexibility to change and extend over time. For example, in future we plan to add cross-links to related projects and technologies.

Check it out…

• Extensive work portfolio (Tip: to move through the portfolio you can click the on-screen arrows or use the left and right arrows on your keyboard)
• Some fabulous ideas
• Dozens of awards
• Top notch services
• About the company, its people and how their clients have benefited from working with them
• Where to find Click Suite and keep in touch

Still coming… (sometime in 2010)

• HTML version of the website (for the few organisations which block Flash).
• SmartPhone version.
• Ability to filter projects by client.