Posts tagged One Part Scissors
Branding. Web. Advertising. Design.
One Part Scissors is revamping the websites for all the companies within the GOSCOR Group of Companies.
The first of the sites to go live is the Goscor Rental site.
The website refresh project spans 10 websites in total. The websites were already all based on the Drupal Content Management System, but the websites themes were looking dated, and were not all uniform enough to tie them together as a single group of companies.
Some of the websites were on the latest version of Drupal, version 7, while many were still on Drupal 6. Many of the essential SEO modules were not installed, and the feature set across the websites differs vastly. Part of the project is making sure that all the websites offer Goscor the same functionality - all the sites should have the same types of galleries, product catalogues and google maps.
Our first job was to create a Drupal 7 version of the old websites themes, and upgrade all 10 sites to Drupal 7. Thereafter, we began work moving all the websites onto the new themes, and creating fresh new home pages for each site.
Once the homepage for a site was ready, we made the new theme live, and enabled the extra functionality, such as new product pages, new google maps pages, and so on. We also ensured all the SEO options were correctly configured.
OPS has been working with the Easylife Kitchens website since 2005, and in that time, the site has risen to becomes the number one organic search result on google.co.za for the keyword ‘kitchens’. It has also become a valued resource for customers (and even Easylife’s competitors!)
The website has at its core a massive gallery of kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms created by Easylife Kitchens. The gallery contains thousands of images, and the first job of the 2013 website overhaul was to give customers some better handles on the incredible gallery. OPS installed useful search modules that help customers in their searching of the gallery, as well as simpler categories to browse through. A work in progress is the ‘tagging’ of the entire gallery with keywords, which will help site visitors (and Google) in identifying what the images are about. This will allow visitors in time to search for all the ‘red’ kitchens, or all the kitchens with ‘curves’.
The website is built on the Drupal content management system, which allows not only easy updates, but excellent SEO tools to help keep Easylife at number 1. The website is also Responsive, so it displays perfectly on smartphones and tablets.
Another vital aspect of the website is the showroom information. Contact details, Google Maps, and addresses are available to browse, and if you are visiting from a device with a GPS built-in, the website can even show you your closest Easylife showrooms.
There are two aspects to web design - technology and design. With web design, the visual aspect can be influenced by such varied influences as operating system and software design, to traditional design such a brochure or poster design.
As far as technology goes, new technologies are always emerging, and it is important to take advantage of the benefits afforded by these new technologies and techniques.
A major influence to the Internet has been the rise of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. People have more regular and immediate access to the Internet, and these devices have also brought the Internet to millions of people who have not previously had access (this is particularly true in Africa).
The limitations of these devices are twofold - they have smaller screens, and they normally have a touch screen as their primary source of input.
As far as “Touchscreen as Input” goes, this means that ‘hover’ states cannot be counted on to be seen by your visitors - very often when you slide over something with your mouse cursor, it will light up or give you visual feedback to let you know it is clickable. There is no ‘hover’ state when you tap a screen to click - and there is no hovering or mousing over. This impacts the way a website needs to look - links need to look like links without depending on the mouse over effect.
By far the biggest impact these smaller devices have on your website is the size of the screen. iPads and iPhones will generally display a website as it appears on your desktop screen, but text will often be tiny and unreadable - double-tap an area to zoom in and read. This works, but it doesn’t make for a very fluid browsing experience.
What you need, of course, is your content to be a single column that fills the width of the small screen, with text that is readable at arms length. Two columns of text don’t sit well on a tiny screen.
This presents a dilemma though - if you go with a single column layout on a desktop-sized screen, the website will feel… boring. It will not be making the best use of the bigger screen.
Initially, the idea was to have a “Mobi” site, and a desktop site. This becomes a pain to administer though - you now have 2 websites to keep up to date.
Enter the concept of “Responsive” web design.
Quite simply, “Responsive” means that your website responds to the screen it is being displayed on. You have one website, but it displays completely differently on a desktop or a mobile device.
See below, we show screenshots from the new Responsive Bryanston Bible Church website (visit the site on your computer and mobile device to see it in action -bbc.org.za).
First up, we see the homepage of the bbc.org.za website on a computer:
We have taken full advantage of the large screen size, by having an interesting multi-coumn layout that presents the visitor with all the info they need.
However, if this was presented on a mobile device as-is, it would be quite useless. See the image below for example - this is 320 pixels across, the same size as an iPhone screen.
As we can see, the text is far too small to read, the main menu links are tiny, which is problematic because a finger will not be able to tap these links easily. Below, see how the website is displayed on a mobile device.
For the mobile view of the website, we have increased the size of the logo to make it more visible. We have presented the social network icons below the logo, and we have packed the menu away inside a tappable menu box. This allows the menu links to be easily accessible, but not taking up valuable screen real estate when not in use.
Below the header area, we have the many columns of content sorted into a single column that is readable and useful.
Having a responsive website in today’s age is vital. Mobile devices and tablets are beginning to outsell traditional computers, and this trend is set to continue and deepen. Having your content available at a single destination - but magically displaying perfectly on everyone’s devices - is a requirement in today’s multi-device, multi-screen world.
If you would like to have your website refreshed and made responsive, click here to contact One Part Scissors to discuss your website.
One Part Scissors has just updated onepartscissors.com with a fresh new look.
Please visit the new Responsive Website and let us know your thoughts.
Africa Works Website
Africa Works approached OPS to design a website for the organisation that would communicate what they do, as well as provide a platform to allow for the sale of the items created.
Africa Works aims to economically empower the community of Alexandra and transform lives, giving the residents skills they can use. Africa Works teaches unemployed people basic skills which enable them to earn an income and help themselves.
The website is built on the Drupal Content Management system, allowing Africa Works to quickly and easily upload photo galleries, new info on their projects and products, and the website has an online shop ready and waiting (to be launched in the next few months).
The website’s theme is “Responsive”, meaning that it dynamically re-themes the content and reshapes the pages to display them in the best possible manner based on the device you are using to browse the site.
Africa Works on a normal Laptop Screen
If you are looking at it on a laptop, the website displays normally. If you are looking at it on a particularly large screen, the fonts and images are increased in size to take advantage of the larger space. If you are browsing on a smart phone, the menu becomes a drop-down menu that takes up less screen-space, and the content reflows to fit into a single column which is easier to read on a small screen.
Africa Works on a iPhone Screen
Visit the website on your computer and your mobile device to see it in action.
Accumation Website
One Part Scissors recently created a corporate folder for Accumation, and the website has just been redesigned as well.
The task that Accumation set for OPS was to replicate the look-and-feel of the website for Accumation’s China factory. Our challenge was to carry the same design across, but simplify it and remove any unnecessary clutter. Another requirement for the new website was that it had to be Responsive (This simply means that it displays correctly on mobile devices - the website is able to respond to the of the screen it’s being shown on, and reformat the content accordingly).
The website is built on Wordpress to allow Accumation to quickly and easily update the website with new content.
The content was generated by combining the content from the Chinese website, the old Accumation website, and the information from the new corporate folder.
Comparison between the new Accumation website and the Chinese Factory website.
Visit the new website at www.accumation.co.za
ST LEGER & VINEY Annual Sale Campaign
ST LEGER & VINEY’s Annual Fabric sale is a major event in the ST LEGER & VINEY calendar, and OPS has been working with ST LEGER to ensure the message of the sale is communicated effectively to their customers. The theme of the sale has something of a vintage circus vibe.
The campaign covered several bases ranging from newspaper adverts and social media, to flyers and an email campaign. Below is some of the artwork from the campaign.
The Annual Sale advert appeared in the following Caxton Newspapers: Fourways Review, Northcliff Melville Times, Randburg Sun, Rosebank Gazette, Sandton Chronicle. The advert also appeared in the Home Weekly section of the Sunday Times.
Artwork for the The Annual Sale newspaper advert.
Email Signature were added to all outgoing emails from ST LEGER to promote the sale.
Promotional Emailers kept consistency with ST LEGER’s normal emailers
Flyers and Posters were used to promote the sale in key areas and in the ST LEGER Showrooms.
ST LEGER’s Facebook Timeline Cover photo was used to promote the sale.
Accumation Corporate Folder
Accumation supplies packaging machines, and with a global reach, needed their new corporate folder to reflect this – while still representing its South African base.
A good corporate folder is an extremely useful tool for your business - it elevates any quotes or other “normal” documents by wrapping them in a well-designed, colourful, and interesting package that will stand out on a client’s desk, communicate your brand, and keep all the documents together.
The background of the corporate folder serves as more than just a visual device - the richly detailed world map pinpoints the South African Head Office, the Regional Office in Ghana, and the Chinese Factory, as well as the various countries Accumation has supplied into.
Outside Front & Back of Folder
Inside Spread of Folder
AIRCURE “Boardroom” Campaign
AIRCURE creates innovative solutions for air filtration. A major part of their client base is the mining industry, and clean air is a major issue for the mines.
This new range of adverts brings attention to the fact that a lack of clean air is already a problem underground for the workers, but left unchecked, the problem will find its way into the boardroom by way of costly Health and Safety shut-downs and even legal action by affected workers.
GodFirst Corporate Identity
One Part Scissors has refreshed the brand of GodFirst Church.
GodFirst is going through a rebranding process to strengthen the brand for the exciting changes the church has lined up for 2010. GodFirst is expanding to operate in 7 locations in the new year, and the larger scale of the group means that a defined and structured set of guidelines around the presentation of the brand becomes vital.
Because of GodFirst’s growing profile in the city, OPS created a new logo that pays homage to the former logo, so as to maintain recognition and credibility - the ties to the old identity are still strong, but the logo has been updated, strengthened and refreshed.
 New GodFirst Logo. The new logo has thicker lines, which allows it to be legible at much smaller sizes than the previous logo. |
 Previous GodFirst Logo. |
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A symbol was also devised for situations where the full logo cannot be used – for example, as the Website’s “Favorite Icon”. The symbol makes use of the phrase “G1”, which has become a colloquial reference to the church among its members. |
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Brand Manual
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The GodFirst brand identity manual was given to all those responsible for communicating on behalf of the church. The guidelines in the manual are loose enough to allow for creative expression around the themes that the church communicates about - everything from marriage and sex, to salvation and destiny.The brand manual seeks to provide a framework that is dynamic and adaptable. |
