Digital
Whether you need a new website, want to send an email campaign or need help with your online marketing, our in-house digital design team are here to help.
Brands are expected to communicate with and engage with their customers in more ways than ever before. Every screen, from a smartphone to a smart TV, is a potential stage for interacting with your customers.
Maintaining a consistency in quality and style across these platforms is vital. Done well, it instills trust in your brand and helps create a recognisable identity. Our digital designers help you utilise every relevant touch point you have with your customers, whilst delivering a consistent brand experience.
For most businesses the core of a good digital strategy is a well designed and well built website. A website can be an extremely valuable business tool, finding you new customers and helping keep your existing ones happy. Our digital designers and developers work side-by-side to create a website that is tailored to your business. Our digital design team are also Google Certified, ensuring compliance with Google best practices and skilled in recognising opportunities for improving your website.
We can also assist you with your digital marketing efforts. Using industry leading software, we design build and send email campaigns, promoting your business and products to new and existing customers. Emails are designed to be on-brand and consistent will all your marketing materials.
Talk to us about your next digital design project by calling 01869 250806.
Digital Projects:
Oxford Optronix website redesign and rebuild
Oxford Optronix has been serving life-scientists with world-class instrumentation for over 30 years. As the company continues to grow and innovate, they need a website that can grow with them.
The previous website was built on a custom content management system (CMS) which, because of its limitations and unintuitive interface, became harder to manage over time. Although the custom CMS could theoretically be changed to suit the needs of the content and its editors, making changes relied on the sole developer. This meant changes were subject to his availability and costs, and meant that future changes would be problematic if the developer was no longer available.
In light of these discussions, we suggested Craft CMS, a commercially available CMS with a large community of developers and support. The flexibility and framework of the CMS would allow us to expand and iterate on the website to keep pace with the evolving product line.
Building on our design teams rebranding work, the website was crafted to reflect the new direction and more modern aesthetic of the Oxford Optronix brand. We worked on improving the structure, hierarchy and legibility of the complex product information for both mobile and desktop environments.
Product information and documentation, previously on multiple domains and CMS’s, were combined and can now be managed from single place, ensuring consistency and maintainability.
The rebuild presented an opportunity to analyse and improve the website’s search engine optimisation. Our in-house Google experts carried out an audit of the site and produced a strategy for growth. These suggestions were implemented into the build stage in combination with significant performance increases.
eShot design for Kingsley
Newsletter eShot design, build and delivery for Kingsley
Part of an ongoing campaign to maintain regular contact with its customers, Kingsley asked us to design and create a regular email newsletter to promote news and latest vehicles for sale.
We created Kingsley’s email using our industry-leading email marketing platform. The system makes it extremely easy to create, send and measure the impact of your email marketing campaigns from a simple to use online admin system.
Jacuzzi Hot Tub Studio website design
With showrooms in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and the West Midlands, Hot Tub Studio are one of the UK’s leading distributors of Jacuzzi® hot tubs and swim spas. Unfortunately, their old website wasn’t serving customers to the high standard they were used to when visiting these showrooms.
The initial audit of the old website uncovered some key areas of frustration for both customers and the Hot Tub Studio (HTS) team. Firstly the website was very slow to load, which was not only frustrating to users but was very likely hurting the search engine visibility. Secondly, built on a plethora of WordPress plugins and restrictive templates, the website was unreliable for customers and hard to manage/update for the team. Finally, the dated aesthetic of the website didn’t reflect the premium products and service that Hot Tub Studio offer.
After outlining the goals for the rebuild, we began the process by restructuring and reformatting the product information to make it easier to navigate and understand. Working with the extensive product knowledge of the HTS team, we imported the real product information into Craft CMS so we could design and prototype the new site with accurate information. Designing and building the site in parallel allowed us to iterate quickly and share our progress regularly.
The new website design fulfils to key project goals. Firstly, it instills confidence in the brand through a more consistent and considered aesthetic. Secondly, it focuses on making it easy for the customer to find the ideal hot tub and presents a clear call to action; either to see it in a showroom or make an enquiry.
The enquiry system in the CMS is also integrated into the SharpSpring customer relationship management (CRM) software used by Hot Tub Studio, allowing them to retain the customer management workflow already in place.
In addition to the enhancements to the management of the site, the rebuild provided an opportunity to improve both the usability and performance of the site for customers.
Asnew Upholstery eShot design
ECOPAC Power website design and build
Ecopac Power offers the UK’s largest range of AC-DC power supplies, stocking and managing thousands of products. Making a product catalogue of that size accessible, discoverable and navigable is no easy task.
Ecopac came to us with the intention of upgrading their existing website, to improve the speed, usability and appearance of a now dated resource. After in-depth discussions with the Ecopac team, we set about familiarising ourselves with the complex product lines and devising a plan to structure and present the large amount of data involved.
Provided with data exports from the old website, we were able to manipulate and import the data into the new CMS system; grouping and rationalising the product ranges in a way that made sense to the end user. Having this product data early on in the design and development process meant we could model the real content and account for the wide array of requirements the information presented.
We developed a filtering and categorisation system that allowed customers to refine their search and quickly find the products they were looking for. We also provided ways for customers to make enquiries at the opportune moment; increasing the likelihood of customer enquiries.
The website design we developed focused on improving the usability, structuring and presenting product information in a clear and succinct way. The updated design of the site also improved brand confidence by presenting a professional, consistent and unified visual style.
In addition to the main website, Ecopac also ran an additional branded site with a subset of products. As part of the project, we were tasked with upgrading this website in parallel, potentially doubling the complexity. Using the Craft CMS platform, we were able to merge the management of these two sites and manage both from a single CMS installation. This saved time, effort and duplicated data.
Sum-It website re-design
Sum-It, the UK’s leading producers of integrated farm management software, had great success with their original website that we built for them back in 2012. It had helped them achieve multiple #1 search rankings with Google. But its age was beginning to show.
As we were also working on a re-brand (included new typography, images, colour palette, and creation of a suite of icons & new logos), it was an ideal time to also redesign and rebuild the Sum-It website.
Building on our design teams rebranding work, the website was crafted to reflect the new direction and more modern aesthetic of the refreshed Sum-It brand. For the site CMS we suggested Craft CMS, a commercially available CMS with a large community of developers and support. The flexibility and framework of the CMS would allow us to expand and iterate on the website to keep pace with a new product range that was planned for release in 2022.
The rebuild presented an opportunity to analyse and finesse the website’s search engine optimisation. Our in-house Google experts carried out an audit of the site and produced a strategy to ensure the site continued to dominate the rankings for their industry. These suggestions were implemented into the build stage in combination with significant performance increases that we were able to achieve by using the latest techniques and technologies.
Kingsley eCommerce website design
CMS driven, responsive eCommerce website for Range Rover Classic restorers Kingsley.
Following the creation of their corporate website, Kingsley commissioned us to design and build their parts sales website to launch their e‑commerce business.
A reinvigorated website design for reborn Range Rover Classics
When you do something as extensive and complex as Kingsley Cars do, you need to somehow translate that complexity into a simple-to-use website. We partnered with Kingsley to help solve that problem.
There are very few companies in the world that can do what Kingsley do. Restoring Range Rover Classics in such a considered and exacting way is a painstaking labour of love. As a result, Kingsley are sought out by clients around the globe.
In order to be found by these clients, and to communicate this value, Kingsley needed a new website. A website that would clarify their extensive restoration offering and present them in a way that did justice to their detail orientated approach.
In the exploratory phase, our team worked closely with Kingsley to rationalise their services and create a structure for the new website that would remain approachable. Rather than starting with the pre-existing structure that had become bloated over the years, we removed, consolidated and refined sections and pages to create an organised and usable sitemap.
With this foundation, we were able to begin rapidly prototyping and wire framing the website to test our ideas in context. During this process the client was able to see our progress on the development site, and give time sensitive feedback to keep the project momentum going.
In parallel to the website development, we also co-ordinated multiple photo shoots with our in-house photography team to produce much needed imagery for the website.
Working with our CMS of choice (Craft CMS), we created a flexible content creation tools that allowed our content editors and the client to add to and amend the website during design and development. The efficiency of this approach meant we were able to complete the website design and build in tandem and come in on time and on budget.
CP Electronics eShot design
New Asnew Upholstery website design
Asnew Upholstery opens the site visitor’s eyes to the vast possibilities for home furniture renewal offered by this craft-led family business. We were approached to redesign their current site to include their brand new furniture range.
With the help of our in-house photographer, we captured the before and after of the reupholstery process. Then making use of the interactivity the web provides, we created a way for customers to see this transformation happen.
The result was far more engaging than a simple side-by-side image. It really encourages potential customers to see the craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into making a piece as good as new. In addition to this important showcase, the website also details the services Asnew provide and an insight into the team and process that makes it all possible. As a consequence visits to the site and enquiries have increased dramatically.
An embedded showcase video was also filmed on location by our video production team – one of the extra benefits of working with the multi-disciplined MicroGraphix team.
NSSE ecommerce website design
CMS driven, responsive ecommerce website for power protection specialists NSSE.
NSSE’s previous website hadn’t progressed for a couple of years and needed an update. Through a recommendation, NSSE chose MicroGraphix to tackle the redesign and rebuild. The update provided an opportunity to add new functionality, namely an e‑commerce store, and to address the both the branding and user experience.
After completing the planning stage, in which the site architecture and content plan were produced, we began defining the visual components. Taking an evolutionary approach, we built upon NSSE’s existing branding, refining colours, typography, iconography and imagery to elevate the aesthetic to where the company aspired to be.
A visual direction was agreed upon quickly and allowed us to start developing prototypes early on. Company stakeholders were able to view the prototypes in context (in the browser and on mobile) and get a sense for how the site would function. This allowed for meaningful feedback, which was essential for keeping momentum on the project.
Built with Craft CMS and Craft Commerce, all areas of the site, including the store, can be managed by the client. The content management system is easy to use, features live previews, flexible content and a whole host of features that our clients really appreciate. But most of all it means the site can be easily maintained and updated.
eShot design for NSSE
Bailey Racing website design and build
Responsive website design and build for Bailey Racing, an Oxfordshire based company specialising in Thoroughbred Racehorse ownership.
A simple, scrolling website was required to show off the key areas of their business and drive visitors to the sales section or to get in contact. Built on the Craft CMS platform Bailey racing can update and edit all areas of the site.
Stonebridge website design
Stonebridge preformed wooden components can be found in all kinds of products, from furniture and seating components to transport interiors.
Stonebridge first came to us in 2011 looking for a new website that would provide easily accessible information about their complex press tool library and product range. We built a custom made content management system (CMS) that allowed them to upload, and update press tools, products and supplementary information, and also add news articles to the site.
The new website also ensured the Stonebridge brand was faithfully translated online and the right first impression created for new customers. To do this, Stonebridge utilised our other in-house services, commissioning design, photography and illustration. A bespoke set of illustrations and icons were created to add clarity to the technical diagrams that make up their online press tool library. And a photoshoot was undertaken to give insight into their facilities, team and production process.
Together with the Stonebridge team, in the Spring of this year, we began a review of the site with a view to building a new version of the site for 2018 that would take advantage of the latest responsive web technologies and CMS platforms, allowing us to build both a mobile friendly and multi-lingual website. In preparation for the alternate language versions we commissioned professional translations of all the text on the site.
Built with Craft CMS, all areas of the new site (in multiple languages) can be managed by the client. The content management system is easy to use, features live previews, flexible content and a whole host of features that our clients really appreciate. But most of all it means the site can be easily maintained and updated.
An additional complexity came about with the requirement for the Slovakian version of the site to be hosted on a separate domain (greenform-so.sk). Our development team were able to configure a solution for this — enabling management of the English, German and Slovakian sites from a single CMS control panel.
Ultraflex website design
As with many businesses, Ultraflex have a complex and technical product offering. Organising that product informationand presenting it in an approachable way is no easy task, and is often where off-the-shelf websites fall short.
After getting to know the Ultraflex product offering, we began mapping out the structure of the new site and planning the types of content needed to communicate the essential information. With a clear set of requirements established, we chose to work with a Craft CMS, a full-featured and flexible content management system that would compliment the planned structure and allow for future evolution.
Using our page builder (developed for Craft CMS), editors of the Ultraflex website were able to quickly assemble pages with a variety of different content types and pre-built components (images, slideshows, tables, text, quotes etc). These pages could then be easily categorised and grouped using Craft CMS’s intuitive category and relationship features.
By building the website with reusable components we were able to add and manage the content efficiently and consistently throughout the process. This workflow, in combination with multiple team members being able to edit the content at once, meant the site came in on time and within budget.
The website is also engineered for performance, an increasingly important factor for both user satisfaction and search rankings. Coupled with our industry leading website hosting, the website scores very highly on Google’s speed tests; something that many template sites fail to do. The resulting website is a performant, functional and easy to navigate.
Amplivox eShot design
eShot design, build and delivery for Amplivox.
We created Amplivox’s email using our industry leading email marketing platform. The system makes it extremely easy to create, send and measure the impact of your email marketing campaigns from a simple to use online admin system.