Middleton Group
An informative, modern, and user-friendly website that captures the needs of an array of different stakeholders.
' ' It was a great experience working with Need a Web's team to redevelop our company website. The team was highly responsive, open to feedbacks and always seeking to provide various options, empowering us to decide what’s best for our company website. ' '
- Middleton Group
Project Goals
The Middleton Group are a leading Australian engineering consultancy, who service national and international clients from their offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
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Middleton Group were using a Wix website which no longer served the needs of the business or their clients. At the initial stages of this project, we were able to identify what was contributing to the site’s poor performance, which included confusing website structure, unclear user journeys and the site was unresponsive and not compatible across different devices.
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Our Goals:
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Present a modern interface reflective of the brands’ mission and leadership within their industry
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Utilise the Middleton Group website as a means to establish and strengthen trust with various stakeholders
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Ensuring that the platform allows users to access relevant information intuitively
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Introducing the team members across each specialisation to users in a simple and easy to navigate way (in turn further enhancing trust)
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Optimising the website to be functional for mobile devices
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Showcasing the work culture and highlighting the career opportunities available
Our Solution
Upon completing our initial discovery phase of brand persona, competitor analysis and stakeholder needs, to understand the business objectives in addition to the limitations, Need a Web were able to design a new website that would reinforce who the organisation are, what they do and what they stand for.
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The Middleton Group website was shifted to the WordPress for Business CMS, known for its ease-of-use content management for simple and flexible editing ongoing. This WordPress solution developed by Need a Web utilises unique features that reside within a development framework that not only enhances website security and functionality but also makes it easier for Middleton Group employees to make ongoing content changes, allowing them to autonomously handle the day-to-day maintenance of their site.
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The 3 main areas of business to portray, were:
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Their industry work;
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Their work culture; and
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Their community awareness and involvement.
Selling the three key pillars
We found it imperative to highlight these key areas with users from the start of their visit. To achieve this a hero carrousel was used on the home page at full screen to make an impact when users first visit the site.
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To allow these three qualities to shine through, minimal branded elements were utilized and opted for a clean and simple approach by using just the logo and brand colours. This allowed their work and team to be the standout feature that differentiated them from their competitors.
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Further, we utilized icons throughout the website where there was the need to bring essential content to the forefront. We felt this particularly important on areas of the website that were content-heavy as it allows users who skim read to still leave the site with the key takeaways.
Establishing trust
In order to establish and extend trust with their stakeholders it was important to showcase the following:
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Third-party endorsements. The achievements of the business were prominent on the home page in addition to their About us as well as client and employee testimonials.
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Detailing and differentiating their industry specializations in easy to read, bite-size information blocks make it easy for users to consume and digest the need-to-know information to encourage the user to ideally make contact or discover more information in case studies pertaining that industry (individualizing the content shown to be specific to the user’s intent).
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The Middleton Group Knowledge Hub highlights its industry involvement. It showcases their understanding of the stakeholders they work with as well as portrays them as being active members.
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Highlighting their best asset – their staff. Throughout the website, staff images are used to connect users to the individuals who work on delivering the projects. It draws attention to not only the level of expertise in-house but the work culture of the company.
Mobile compatibility and SEO is a must
The previous Middleton Group website was not compatible with mobile devices which caused functionality issues for a growing mobile user market and in particular, brand perception of potential clients. Mobile usability is increasing, and it was important that Middleton Group had a responsive page that would perform effectively across desktop and mobile devices.
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Prior to launch, all previous web pages were redirected to ensure Middleton Group did not lose any of their market power in search. The website is also now connected to Google Analytics and Search Console to allow the client to monitor important data to assist in business decisions.