Chatwin Engineering
Re-engineering an engineering firm's website to better better reflect their mission and services.
CHALLENGE
Chatwin Engineering is one of BC’s most respected and successful engineering and planning companies, with offices across Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. A multidisciplinary organization, Chatwin provides expert surveying, assessment, planning, design, and construction and project management for various clients in both the public and private sectors. Although the company had grown and matured over its 25 year history, Chatwin’s website had become dated, cluttered, and ineffective, and their online presence was no longer an accurate reflection of who they were.
APPROACH
Chatwin Engineering required an intuitive, easy-to-use website that better reflected the company’s brand, mission, and services for use as an effective marketing, recruitment, and communications tool. We began by engaging our discovery process to define the true nature of the client’s needs as well as the needs and priorities of their primary audiences.
As we considered aesthetic options for the project, it became clear that we should develop a modern, clean layout with large imagery highlighting their work. In terms of structure, their audience had practical but clear information needs, so navigation unfettered by visual clutter or web gimmickry was crucial. To ensure that the Chatwin brand story was part of user experience, we decided to include key messages as call-outs throughout the site to provide insight for visitors curious about the Chatwin story.
RESULTS
As Chatwin specializes in three areas of engineering—civil, building, and environmental—we used these to guide the primary structure of the website. A portfolio that prominently showcases project case studies with descriptions complemented by a rotating gallery of photos—including an option to enlarge images for a closer look—highlights Chatwin’s engineers, scientists, technologists, and staff and their use of the most up-to-date equipment and methods.
The design was planned to make most content accessible within two mouse clicks, and with copious amounts of frequently changing information required, we utilized Drupal to create a powerful content management system. This CMS not only allows our client to easily update content themselves, but is fast, safe, and secure. Another usability aid was the inclusion of powerful search functionality as well as a large footer which provides quick links and contact info within the site.
By all measures, the recently launched site is a success, with a positive reception by staff and clients, and increasing web traffic, inbound clicks and requests are now easily being tracked by the built-in stats system we included.
