SITUATION
An energy company’s online payment processing was stuck in an old private authenticated website that hadn’t been updated in 5–6 years, resulting in a mobile and tablet experience for customers that was extremely limited and dis-satisfactory. The company needed to unite the legacy website with its main website to better serve its base of more than 1 million customers.
CHALLENGE
The challenges for this project were twofold: first, to merge the legacy authenticated site into a newer site whose structure was never intended to house it; and second, to incorporate Responsive Web Design into both sites to enable a rich mobile and tablet experience for the customer. An extremely tight deadline was imparted because the client company wanted its new website to be ready for the beginning of the winter season, when customer usage of the website is typically high. To meet all of these challenges, the company turned to AIM Consulting.
SOLUTION
An AIM consultant with industry-leading UX design expertise was quickly brought in to assess the situation and deliver the solution. The UX designer produced more than 150 wireframes for the websites in a two-month span, implementing navigation and design changes where necessary while staying true to the main website design. As part of this extensive project, the main website presentation layer (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) needed to be updated, as it wasn’t coded originally with Responsive Web Design in mind.
The consultant worked with the company’s marketing and design teams to completely restructure the legacy authenticated site, which includes sections for individual consumers as well as businesses. The consultant also made recommendations to the engineering and development teams regarding mobile and tablet use of the site. While the company’s engineering team re-coded the site, AIM also provided additional QA/testing resources to help meet the strict deadline.
RESULTS
The project was delivered at top speed, and the newly integrated site went live in time for the winter season. The user experience is much more fluid, with clean account sign-in and account-creation processes, enhanced navigation, and the ability to use the site on any device. Maintenance efforts have been decreased because the company is no longer required to support two separate websites. With modern HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, the site is now scalable and will serve the needs of the company for the next 3–5 years.
