We recently launched one of the most interesting, exciting, and complex websites we’ve ever built… If you’d like to know more about the process from start to finish, read on.

Overview

On the Edge (OTE) Sports is a British start-up specialising in the manufacture and sales of sports nutrition products. We were recommended by Elmwood, (a global design consultancy who were working on the brand and packaging design), to develop the OTE online presence, including the design and development of an eCommerce store.

The OTE product range boasts a number of specific ‘features’ that we had to communicate effectively. The relatively small number allowed us to explore a more unique approach to the design, and OTE were keen to push boundaries to reflect their innovative range. As a new company with an unknown brand in a highly competitive market they also needed to stand head and shoulders above the competition, grab the attention of potential new customers and emphasise the benefits of each individual product.

The website is designed to inspire, excite and educate both the hobbyist and professional market with striking high-resolution graphics. The responsive templates adapt to devices of any size and resolution, ensuring that the information is always shown in the most suitable format.

We used the Lemonstand eCommerce platform to host the back end of the website and designed a series of completely custom templates for the customer-facing front end. We crafted the user experience from the ground up, using responsive HTML wireframes to develop content hierarchy along with user journey diagrams to design both the shopping and the ‘descovery’ processes.

What Creative succeeded in creating a website that we’re truly proud of. It’s extremely effective and we love the unique online experience that they’ve developed for OTE customers. They were very adaptable and overcame many challenges throughout the project whilst still maintaining focus and sticking to tight deadlines. They involved us heavily at all the key stages to ensure that the brief was being met and we’re now confident that we can be a real competitor in a heavily crowded market. — Matt Harrison (OTE Co-founder)

Objectives

The brief was to launch the website and create brand awareness whilst communicating the company ethos and product features.

Market research highlighted the poor branding and design of existing companies in the market. These companies lack mass-market appeal and alienate non-professionals with technical jargon and clinical packaging. The aim of the OTE website was to speak more openly to the mass market — to both educate hobbyists and excite professionals. We set our aims high; Lucozade design appeal combined with SiS professional expertise.

Other objectives included:

• Deliver the website to a wide range of mobile and desktop devices. Being able to easily purchase products whilst at your work computer, sat at home on your tablet, or out and about on your mobile phone was key to the success of the website
• Educate and engage with users by sharing OTE’s vast knowledge on sports and nutrition
• Develop brand loyalty by being transparent and open to customer engagement
• Convey a Great British family feel

Strategy

Our strategy focussed heavily on outstanding design combined with clear, concise content. We aimed for the visual impact of a brochure-style site to go hand-in-hand with the usability of a great ecommerce system.

Responsive design
Responsive, flexible templates lay at the heart of the strategy. These would allow users on a diverse range of mobile and desktop devices to easily access the content that they sought. The use of these new web technologies also reflected the brand ethos of developing new ideas and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. These templates were developed from scratch, using HTML responsive wireframes to test out various layout options live in the browser before moving onto the design phase.

High Quality Imagery
The products have several unique features that we aimed to highlight through the use of large high-resolution imagery, such as their bespoke ‘Dual Delivery’ packaging. We were careful not to forget about load-times though, and ensured full optimization of all the assets before pushing the site live. This is extremely important when you consider the customers on slow connections or viewing through a mobile data connection.

Simplicity & Readability
We designed the content strategy around simplicity and readability, dividing content into clear sections and building up the complexity of information as you delve deeper into the pages. This allows users who only want to understand the bare minimum to learn the basics in just a few seconds, without compromising on the amount of complex technical content that elite and professional athletes like to study. The tone of voice throughout the site was also important, as it must be educational without sounding patronising or condescending to those in the know. We spent time with the client and studied the different user groups to ensure that this was on-brand and as engaging as possible.

In addition to this we also devised an SEO strategy around the articles and FAQs sections of the website. These sections are of utmost importance to help drive potential customers to the site from search results.

Test, test, test
Testing is a key part of our strategy and gauging how users navigate around the website on a variety of devices is extremely important. We therefore planned several testing phases both internally and externally with the client at both wireframe and front-end build stages. We have a number of mobile devices and operating systems in-house for completing these rigorous testing phases.

Results

As the website only launched at the beginning of May we are still in the very early stages of monitoring results and we do not have an excess of quantifiable data. However, things are looking very good.

• We have received very positive feedback from OTE who has been holding focus groups in a variety of sports clubs. Particularly glowing comments have been made around the mobile experience.
• OTE have received positive feedback from Twitter and Facebook followers: “@OTESportsGB it’s great! Nice mobile version too…” (http://tinyurl.com/l4dftht)
• Of the 1000 unique visitors so far, 32% have accessed the website on a mobile device, proving that our responsive approach was correct.
• The average time spent on the site is currently over 8 minutes, which is testimony the level of engagement.
• Within the first week we had over 100 website sign-ups and orders are averaging at £46. Considering that there has been no PR or marketing other than some social media activity due to the full product range not currently being available, results are looking extremely positive.

Our main objective was to raise brand awareness, communicate the OTE ethos and unique products features, and position the brand against its competitors. OTEs website is a leader in this sector both technically and creatively, and we are very happy to have helped the company enter their industry at the top by delivering a web platform that will allow them to launch and promote their products in the most innovative way possible.

OTE are more than satisfied that we have fulfilled their brief and we’re very excited to be gathering data so that we can move forward inpushing their online presence even further over the coming year.

By Chris Kemm