Designer Bookbinders - Case Study

Categories: Website, Design, Content, Digital Marketing, Software

Designer Bookbinders

Designer Bookbinders is one of the foremost societies devoted to the craft of Contemporary bookbinding. Founded more than fifty years ago, our Society is a registered charity and has helped to establish the reputation of British bookbinding worldwide by means of events, education, exhibitions and publications. Our membership includes some of the most highly regarded creators in the fields of fine bookbinding, book arts and artists’ books, each with a passion for presenting the bound text as a unique art object. Inspiration is the book in all its aspects – text, structure, illustration, print and paper – and the completed bindings are as diverse as the individuals who create them.

What They Wanted

The client needed a new website that is easy to navigate, promotes the brand professionally and encourages new membership sign-ups. As well as new memberships, they sought website visitors to sign up for workshops, view past events and purchase products.

The main requirements were: To be accessible to PCs, iOS devices, tablets and smartphones operating on all common platforms; To have a contemporary design to suit to the interests of the organisation and its members; For content to be easily updated by the client’s own marketing team; For navigation to be more straightforward and with minimal clicks to access the content.

What We Did

The Grofuse team initially conducted discovery interviews with the Designer Bookbinders team to create the website brief. This brief guided the entire creative process to understand the project requirements and provide an accurate timeline. Once this was established, the Grofuse team completed the following

Brand refresh - A new logo was recreated to ensure a contemporary design was applied across the website and any future marketing materials. Maintaining a delicate balance between changing the existing image without entirely rebranding was crucial to maintain current brand awareness. The updated style and branding was designed to reflect Designer Bookbinders position as a contemporary and prestigious organisation in the modern arena of arts and craft.

Content and design - To understand Designer Bookbinders and their society, client interviews and an in-depth review of the existing online presence was conducted as part of our discovery process. The Grofuse team identified the content requirements and user needs. Our copywriters worked closely with the client to create engaging content with clear and concise messaging. The website design and content structure was based on the brand refresh and ensuring the revised site structure/navigation was simpler, with minimal clicks to access content – to result in much better customer experience.

Website development - As this was a large and complex project, there were many technical requirements during the website development stage. These included: Development of a customised webstore and user buying journey; Creation of a shop to purchase publications online and the implementation of an entire e-commerce journey online with shipping costs calculated; Implementation of a ‘my account’ login feature to allow different users various levels of access to content; Integration of a live social feed from Instagram into the website; Setting up secure payment gateways, PayPal and Stripe, for the shopping cart; Implementation of an enhanced and customised membership solution to suit their specific needs, with a fully customised member's area including content, membership plans, and more; Implementation of customised designs for various parts of the website, giving the client unprecedented options for later editing without further developer involvement. This provides the client with the ability to add more to a highly content-rich website; Organising many tabs on one page, each linking to a library of pages behind each one in order to optimise user experience in what is a very content-rich website.

On-site SEO - Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager (GTM) were implemented to collect data usage. The site is mobile-friendly and fully responsive - accessible on PCs, iOS devices, tablets and smartphones operating on all common platforms. Meta titles and descriptions show the title of the web page and its description, similar to the title and blurb on the front and back of a book. These were added on every page to make the site easier to read for Google and it’s users.

Professional training - The Grofuse team provided in-depth training for Designer Bookbinders’ staff to empower them to manage website content going forward. This included one-on-one sessions and walk through videos.

The Result

The website's success is measured by visitors spending more time on the site exploring more pages, along with the feedback Designer Bookbinders receive from their society and website visitors.

The Designer Bookbinders board of directors and its members are delighted with the branding and visual appeal of the site.

Member of Designer Bookbinders, Glenn Malkin, said: "As the person who first initiated this process with Grofuse I just wanted to thank you for all the hard work you and your team have done on this project and for working so professionally and positively with George and Hannah to achieve a fabulous website.

"I would certainly be happy to recommend Grofuse to others."

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