Companies with multiple websites can face challenges when unifying their brand. Is it possible to unify content under one website?

Project Objective

Design an information architecture for a new site combining several brands under one roof.

Head First Events is a new branding effort by TeamBonding, a company in Boston focused on live team-building experiences. There were several types of experiences they managed that all had separate web pages, and they brought me on to help unify the brand under one website.

Strategy Meeting

Before breaking any ground on the project, I had to understand the scope of the project.

I met with the founder of the company and discussed his vision and goals with him.

• Goals: The client wanted to merge several existing websites into one experience.

• Budget: Since the project was only preliminary information architecture work, the client was working with a budget of about $500.

• Timeline: The timeline for the project was only three weeks.

• Vision: The new website would include all the information available on the existing sites but under one brand and website. It would also include tools for customers to easily book events regardless of which event they were interested in.

Website Audit

I first went through all the existing websites to gain an understanding of all the information they contained.

Since several websites would be contained within one and the client wanted all the information to be on the new site, I went through all the pages and gleaned what information they displayed. This would allow me to better organize the information by seeing similarities and opportunities for succinct outlining.

I focused on:

• What do these sites say about each type of event?

• How are these current sites organized?

• Are there any opportunities to gather the information on these sites together on the new one?

What I learned from exercise:

• There are similar classes of information contained on these sites, which is an opportunity to organize them in a succinct way

• There are too many pages spread across the sites, necessitating too many clicks by users

• All calendars on these sites should be combined for easy access

Site Mapping / Information Architecture

Taking all the existing sites into consideration, I created a site map of a new combined site.

I used Google Draw to create a site map:

This mapping shows:

• No matter what page users are on, they can access the ability to book an event, regardless of whether it is a public or private event.

• The information contained on the disparate websites is now contained in one site.

• There is one central calendar meant to sell all tickets and show all events that Head First Events offers.

Wireframing / Layout Design

This new layout meets both client and user needs:

• Navigation is simple, the information architecture is more organized under the categories of What, Who, and Why

• Story of the foundation is told through graphics and media in an easy-to-discover format

• Page follows modern convention, including full-width images and bright, optimistic visual language

• Reduces the amount of clicks required to glean the important information from the site

• Presents multiple calls to action on top of page and throughout the site

Implementation

Feedback

- David Goldstein, Founder, Head First Events