Text 100 | Marker Seven

When you are a global technology public relations firm, clients rely on you to help them strategically leverage the latest technology trends to enhance their communications programs.

THE CLIENT'S CHALLENGE

“Our message was strong, but it was hidden beneath some inherent flaws in the site,” said Kate Hill, a Text 100 senior sales and marketing executive. “The site did not showcase our global technology and communications expertise, nor did it adequately communicate our employee-friendly culture and relentless commitment to client service. We realized we needed a complete site overhaul, which was a major undertaking.”

Text 100 launched a review of interactive design firms to overhaul its website. Its top four goals included making the site easier to use, more modern in design, capable of supporting multiple languages and reflective of some of the latest trends in social networking.

After two rounds of evaluating interactive design firms, Text 100 selected Marker Seven, basing its final decision on the firm’s track record of handling projects similar in size and scope.

Hill said, “Marker Seven had the creativity, organization and empirical and entrepreneurial spirit that we wanted in our partner.”

MARKER SEVEN'S SOLUTION

The Marker Seven process, which guides each client engagement, includes six steps: discovery, define, design, develop, implement, and evaluate.

During the initial discovery phase, Marker Seven learned everything possible about Text 100’s business, competition, culture and brand as well as the technologies employed in the initial site. Marker Seven analyzed and applied its research to define a comprehensive project scope and plan to meet Text 100’s objectives. The Marker Seven plan addressed every aspect of the site, including how it would support Text 100's content needs, user experience and functional and technical requirements.

With the objectives and plan agreed upon, the Marker Seven team began the site design to attract and engage Text 100's various constituencies, which include C-level executives, in-house marketing and public relations professionals and journalists, as well as prospective employees.

The Marker Seven design process is complex and incorporates the firm’s expertise in the four Web design disciplines: information, interactive, visual and technical. As part of the information design, Marker Seven created a very user-centric approach to content and visual and functional features. Expanding on the information design, Marker Seven addressed the interactive design –how users easily and quickly move through the site. For the visual design, Marker Seven drew on its extensive creative expertise to create a look that conveyed Text 100’s business objectives, branding and marketing goals and had strong user appeal. Finally, Marker Seven based its technical design on Text 100’s requirements for security, extensibility and scalability as well as its existing IT systems and programming language preferences.
Development followed design wherein Marker Seven employed the appropriate programming technologies to create the optimum site. Marker Seven’s use of Drupal, an innovative open-source software solution especially geared to non-technical users, enables Text 100 to handle its future updates of content, organization, navigation, imagery, colors and typography.

Marker Seven tested and reviewed the site before launch during the implementation phase. Since scalability was one of Text 100’s technical requirements, Maker Seven thoroughly load-tested the system to ensure the hardware and software could serve the company’s current and expanding user base.

THE RESULTS

The new Text 100.com now accurately reflects the company's global presence and culture, two of the project's major design challenges. It also is a much easier site to navigate, guiding users to the specific content they want.

“The former Text 100 website did not reflect the growth in services and sector knowledge that Text 100 has experienced in the past several years,” said Hill. “Visually and structurally, the new website now is in line with Text 100’s vision. It shows our unparalleled technology industry experience, our truly global collaboration offering and the unique culture consistent across all Text 100 offices.”

About Text 100

Founded in London in 1981, Text 100 is recognized as one of the world’s top ten consultancies with 30 international offices and a client roster that includes leading brands, such as IBM, Xerox and Fujifilm. The company takes considerable pride in its industry leadership within the public relations industry in new social media initiatives.