Since 2013, they have designed moments that get people excited and use innovative technology to capture and share them. Their clients include some of the world's best-known brands and agencies.
Background
What adjectives describe The Flash Pack? Bold? Daring? Maybe even flashy? Indeed not plain or boring. But that was the problem with The Flash Pack's website. It was plain, simple, and did not represent the brand accurately.
After producing top-notch content for clients over the years, The Flash Pack felt that their very own website did little to reel in new clients and serve as a strong portfolio.
The challenge
Unlike many well-established video-production companies, The Flash Pack did not have a visually driven website. Instead, they wanted to provide dynamic and engaging multimedia content for potential clients to navigate their new website.
Therefore, our goal was to highlight engaging multimedia content that showcased The Flash Pack's portfolio. We needed to achieve this while accurately representing The Flash Pack's brand.
The research
Once we established an overview of our client's requirements, we decided to dive deeper. We interviewed different stakeholders from The Flash Pack to have a clear visual on:
- What were their expectations from the website?
- What impression did they want to leave on their clients?
- What problems were they facing because of their previous site?
We wanted to learn what additional information was essential to our clients and improve the overall website experience.
We found that besides not reflecting on The Flash Pack's brand image, the old site also had some problems:
- The navigation
- Lack of proper CMS
As it turned out, most of the members from The Flash Pack pointed out that the information architecture of the old site was cluttered, with many sections cluttered and challenging to go through. This made it difficult for clients to navigate through the content. Next, the lack of proper CMS made it difficult to upload and manage content per the business requirements.
Project Challenges
- Unlike many well-established video-production companies, The Flash Pack did not have a visually driven website. Instead, they wanted to provide dynamic and engaging multimedia content for potential clients to navigate their new website.
- Therefore, our goal was to highlight engaging multimedia content that showcased The Flash Pack's portfolio. We needed to achieve this while accurately representing The Flash Pack's brand.
Technologies Used
SCSS
A special language created to make CSS programming easy. Eventually - its just CSS for webpage styling.
PHP
One of the most popular languages of the past decade, PHP is your reliable, get-it-done backend workhorse. Our team knows the ins and outs of PHP and can maintain or scale any product with reliability.
MySQL
The database of choice for many small to enterprise-level projects, our professionals know MySQL from the ground up.
Wordpress
As they say it "42% of the web is built on WordPress." This is the content management system for the web.
The Process
Information Architecture
The first pain point our research uncovered was the information architecture of the current site. The Flash Pack offered services that were under the categories of:
- Studio
- Live
- Installs
Wireframing and Prototyping
Once we established a simple website information architecture, we started designing the website. We first began with low-fidelity mock-ups. The goal was to make sure that the user flow was simple enough. Next, we asked some of our test participants to locate specific information on the site. For example, we asked one of our participants to look for a job description of a vacancy in the company.
Once we were confident with the low fidelity models, we then worked our way to prototyping. The Flash Pack wanted a very dynamic and lively website. After sitting with our clients and having discussions over countless meetings on what the new site should look like, we finally had a new website design in our hands.
The CMS
After wrapping up the website design, we integrated it into a good CMS. For this, we chose WordPress along with the Gutenberg block editor. This made the site user-friendly and easy to manage for our clients.
Site Optimization
Finally, we now had to optimize the website after the CMS integration. The Flash Pack's website was full of heavy files- images and videos. The most significant site optimization issue was, therefore, the loading speed. To tackle this issue, we incorporated lazy loading on the site. In addition, to circumvent security issues, we included firewalls, plugins, and IP address detectors.
Testing and Launch
During the development phase, either the client or we would incur bugs. If the client discovered issues, they would create an issue in GitHub. We would then address the problem and solve it accordingly. We had two domains during the entire development phase- the test and the main domains. We'd deploy codes on the test domain first, and if and only if they run correctly, we'd copy them to the main domain.
Once we were confident that this was it, we sent our work to The Flash Pack's team. And after a few more test rounds, the site was finally ready to launch.
The Results
The Flash Pack's new website was as dynamic and vibrant as the brand. Equipped with the tools and CMS needed to implement changes per their business needs, The Flash Pack was more than ready to enter the digital landscape with a bang.
Final thoughts
Open communication from The Flash Pack team on their issues and expectations helped make this project a success. The bold and dynamic content showcased in the website is supported by the flexible WordPress CMS, allowing The Flash Pack team to keep the website fresh and up-to-date with relevant content. With a site that accurately reflects their brand, The Flash Pack is more than ready to win over new clients and impress their online visitors.
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