Background
Founded in 2005 with 3 partners, Vector Consulting Group is now the leading player in the area of Theory of Constraints consulting in India and South East Asia. Vector employs TOC philosophy to bring about quantum jump in performance of organizations in its target industry clusters. They partner with clients till they realize the targeted benefits.
Web marketing being inexpensive, yet sophisticated and effective if done right – made Vector hunt for a suitable vendor in IDYeah Creations to relook at their corporate branding and communications through public domain: web site.
Challenge
Vector’s main objective behind its recent site revamp was to position the company as the leader in the space of “Theory of Constraints” based management consulting. Vector’s key differentiator from competitors is their array of “guiding principles” on which they base their business operations: Benefits Sharing; Ownership of Results; Trust; and Respect for the Individual.
In order to successfully convey the Vector way of messaging, it was essential that the new site design maintain a steady balance between both the “serious” consulting and the “innovative” engagement aspects of Vector’s services and products.
IDYeah worked with Vector Consulting Group’s founder members to keep the overall tone and structure of site content in line with the corporate brand and offerings strategy. From a design perspective, IDYeah established a consistently innovative visual tone for the site that could be complemented with various graphic elements to infuse a much-needed dynamism without losing the overall intent – of connecting better with the visitors and inspiring trust and confidence as a brand.
Launched in June 2009, the new web site clearly establishes Vector as the leader in its category and provides web site visitors with company, solutions, and industry information that is structured for easy access to the content that they seek.
User & Task Analysis
IDYeah’s User Profiling and Task Analysis served as the foundation for the establishment of the global site architecture and use case workflows. The range of user needs for access to information (i.e. CIO seeking consulting case studies vs. CTO seeking product features) required a detailed “user to task” analysis exercise to determine what online functionality was most valuable to each identified user type. By focusing on functionality and key features for particular user groups, IDYeah was able to identify and quantify at a granular level the key tasks and valued content areas across a wide range of Vector’s site visitors.
Expert Evaluation
- Top Navigation not prominent
- Industry clusters/focus not visible
- Logo and symbol eating up precious real estate on screen
- Not scalable to accommodate increasing number of case studies
- Not scalable to highlight the authored media materials on the competence and success stories
- Overall tone and structure either leaving the visitor without much information or taking repeated and prolonged efforts
- Visual appeal of a leader in its space missing
- Corporate logo and product logos not consistent and progressive
- Over-design and excessive use of Flash – hampering the effectiveness of SEO
Information Architecture
Vector’s priority requirement in establishing the information architecture for site content areas was to establish clear, visitor-specific paths to site information. To achieve the balance between product/service promotion and communication of expertise, IDYeah created a meaningful taxonomy for the site that divided the information into 3 Industry Clusters to help direct the users to relevant content. In tandem with developing the site architecture, IDYeah also developed a crisp information workflow on the Home page providing information seekers with an “at-a-glance” reference to core space and expertise of Vector. Per Industry cluster, following workflow was suggested, designed, and implemented:
IDYeah Creations employed DesignWave Consultancy as the Design Partner and Inkey Solutions as the Technology Partner to arrive at the desired outcome.
User Interface Design
After generating wireframes on the initial concept, and having them in place, IDYeah began applying visual design treatments to the UI foundation to create a look and feel that would support Vector’s repositioning goals. An initial set of digital mockup directions that spanned a range of tone and attitude. From this set, a single direction was chosen and refined to become the new outline face of Vector.
Benefits
- Strong re-branding and re-positioning
- Increased site traffic and qualified set of business inquiries
- Platform for sharing expertise through expert literature
- Improved in-bound marketing and sales
