Challenge: Steinberg’s website was not delivering the results the company wanted for its web presence. It did not support brand expansion and the company’s growth in stature and market reach as keeping content up to date was difficult, time consuming and costly. The website held the company back in its PR efforts by not allowing it to make use of social media channels to self-promote and create any kind of sustainable PR momentum out of its accomplishments or media coverage. Furthermore, it had no way to improve the user experience as it had no way to solicit user feedback or track, measure or quantify it.

Action: I developed a plan for replacing the old website with one that would deliver continuous improvements to the user experience as well as quantifiable results in all areas of performance, including supporting brand growth, market reach to new audiences, PR efforts and social media objectives. The plan included an extensive content strategy and roadmap that included a blog with content generated by internal staff leaders in areas of design and technical expertise interesting to Steinberg’s target audiences. The plan included technical requirement and recommended solutions based on research of current and emerging trends in user experience and technologies. It also included a creative strategy/brief that supported recent visual brand expansion and also allowed for future flexibility. I then implemented the strategy by following a design process that treated company leadership as in-house clients. We iterated through 3 rounds of look and feel design comps, information architecture documents and navigation schemes. The final design was coded by an outside web development firm under my art direction and close collaboration.

Result: The resulting website is a modern expression of Steinberg’s brand. It positions the firm as a progressive firm and design leader. It focuses on the vast and varied portfolio of visuals and photography. The Drupal-based content management system (CMS) allows multiple staff members to share and divide content updating responsibilities. The site structure allows content to be repurposed in social networks and other PR efforts.