Our Work

Case Study: Harwin

Harwin design and manufacture electrical connectors, used by big global customers like BAE and Smiths Aerospace when they’re building a wide variety of hi-technology products including satellites, defence, ships and aerospace. With a global distribution network and manufacturing capability on three continents the company is the leader in its sector. Proud of its customer service and ability to meet customer design requirements they are increasingly looking to their website for the delivery of product, stock and price data to their target audiences.

Harwin approached us one September afternoon with a specific problem – no-one could view their home-page. Their web agency and hosting company were blaming each other whilst the company’s brand was being undermined by the ineffective website.

We quickly identified an immediate problem for them but our investigations uncovered a number of other issues. It became apparent that the website was creating a negative impression of the company as users struggled to cope with ineffective and confusing navigation, poor data display and an ineffective interface. All of these meant that the site delivered an extremely poor user experience and Harwin’s brand was suffering as a result.

We began by producing a report identifying the site’s issues that needed to be resolved and as a consequence Harwin awarded us a contract for the re-development, hosting and support of their website.

We then wrote a specification identifying the proposed solution; this included the revised information architecture, functional design, interface concepts, user machine specification and delivery schedule and once this was agreed we proceeded to the development phase.

Our objectives for the Harwin project were:

• Ensure efficient delivery of information
• Provide clear and easy navigation
• Deliver content in a helpful and visually engaging manner

The development phase only took 8 weeks and we passed the site to Harwin for Client acceptance testing on Valentines Day, one week behind schedule. Because they had access to the development site they were already abreast of many of the issues and were able to turnaround their testing quickly, enabling us to bring the project back on track. Thankfully the service went live on schedule.

Since the site’s re-launch traffic has grown steeply with an annualised rate in excess of 100% and we continue to work with Harwin to refine the customer experience and extend the features available, most recently by adding an image search facility and an AJAX driven samples request form.

“Harwin are a high technology business with a global client base. Central to our brand message is the efficient delivery of a high specification product range backed up with personal service. The Harwin website is a vital sales and marketing channel for our business and we need a web agency that understands our users’ needs to help us obtain a clear competitive edge. After reviewing a number of agencies we selected Aardvark Media for their experience, support service and vision. Their approach to the project was methodical and pragmatic, and by focusing on the user they developed a website that delivers exactly what our customers need - product, stock and price data fast and efficiently. We're very pleased with the results, although it is early days a number of our customers have told us that the site is a significant improvement and by increasing the speed of content delivery, improving the interface and restructuring the site we are able to deliver an excellent user experience that is far better than our competitors.” Sales and Marketing Director - Harwin PLC

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