Rouse
Redevelopment of Rouse website
Rouse was a challenging but thoroughly enjoyable project as it resulted in working with, and advising, the CEO to completely restructure how he wanted the company to be perceived outside of the office.
Ultimately, the key factors for the Rouse website, a global Intellectual Property firm were: -
staff - each person had a special skill set, and worked in a particular location -
location - each office location has a selection of specialist knowledge relating to their country’s IP law -
services – the type of IP services offered in various offices around the world  All three factors were interlinked – e.g. ‘person x’ is a ‘Patent’ specialist in ‘Vietnam’ - so there was a lot of work in deciding how best to interlink the three elements, whilst keeping the site simple to navigate. It would have been very easy to end up with a messy site, and users getting lost or confused. A mindmap was created and amended between us until we were able to correctly map out the desired site structure (right).
Once Rouse were happy with the structure, I then progressed to making a 'wireframe' website using a prototyping tool, which allowed me to quickly create a mock website that had all the structure and flow of a normal website, but without content or any design elements. At this stage, artwork only confuses the client and stops them thinking about the key point of a website - it must be functional, and easy to find what you want.
 The wireframe (left) was then amended until Rouse were happy with the site 'flow' and the elements of each page. Particularly, the relationship between staff, locations and services. Once this was signed off the design was created to comprise all the functional elements (right), and then coding completed. In this way, there were no unforeseen problems and only a few very minor alterations to the site whilst the content was finally being added. This development process often makes the client feel like the project is slow to get going, but it actually ends up saving a lot of time and hassle. It also gives the client a better idea of what they'll be getting (and what other features they can add) before the coding starts. It also means there's a more refined programming spec, as well as a more accurate time/ cost estimate, so everyone ends up happy with the result. | Services page - compare this to the wireframe version above | The People page has a complex search function to find the right person with the relevant skills across their 17 offices | The Locations page has an interactive flash-driven map showing the geographic location of all offices |
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