The overall objective was to deliver a new e-commerce website that ensured greater user experience, highlighted the choice of available breaks in a clear and concise way, and enabled users to search for their breaks through a number of channels without being overwhelmed by the available functionality.

Planning

The project began with an intense planning phase which involved Creative State and partners Occupancy Marketing and Ezone Software.

To ensure we fully understood easy-breaks.com’s needs we met with all partners and mapped out a phased design and digital review, which took into consideration the improvements easy-breaks.com wanted to make, as well as research into competitors, target customers and market trends. We also reviewed current search engine optimisation reports which provided insight into how existing customers were using the site.

Following the review stage we presented concepts as well as a range of beneficial digital ideas that would help to not only shape the design but market the website changes to new and existing customers.

Solution

The improved design not only reflects the fresh approach of easy-breaks.com but delivers a range of new features that enable users to book quickly and easily. Emphasis has been placed on providing as much information as possible in a clear and concise way and new features include a search facility where visitors can search by break type, by hotel or by both.

A range of late deals and featured breaks are also available, which can be adjusted to suit taste and budget, and each hotel has its own page where you can discover more about the location, as well as view image galleries, online videos and customer reviews and available breaks. Customers can also manage breaks, view booking history and write reviews through an exclusively branded ‘mybreaks’ accounts.

To launch the site, we created a ‘new features’ animation which provided an overview of new and improved functionality.

Result

The design has proved a great success with customers and statistics have shown an immediate improvement in the way users interact with the website. The time spent on the site has improved, and sections such as late deals are more widely used. Customers are also making use of their ‘mybreaks’ page by managing breaks and writing reviews.

“Since the easy-breaks.com website has been redesigned the average time that users spend on the site has increased and the number of users leaving from the home page has dropped by 7%. The most important trend is the shift in the way that users are browsing the site, with traffic to some of the main offers and deals pages increasing many times over due to the inclusion of changeable drop down lists of offers on the home page.”

Jonathan Ellis, Occupancy Marketing

Magenta Ink! is a growing online stationery business owned and run by established graphic designer Adrienne Kerr. Alongside her keen eye for style, Adrienne has many invaluable years worth of experience in the social stationery and wedding industry.

Creative State first worked with Adrienne in 2007 and has since collaborated with Magenta Ink! on a number of projects including ongoing website developments, email marketing campaigns, and more recently the revamp of their new online shop which launched in March 2010.

The new e-commerce website benefits from an editorial feel, which was crucial to the development of a simple yet effective online ordering system for stationery. We found that whilst a number of online shops cater for the ordering of wedding stationery online,  it can be a complex process due to the various printing techniques, typestyle and ink choices on offer. Our challenge was to make this an enjoyable experience for the customer, particularly as users have the ability to add motifs to their designs and even have their very own personalised or wedding monograms created.

Adrienne commented on the Magenta Ink! blog: “Many thanks to the extremely talented team at Creative State for their valued expertise over the past six months…They are an incredible team of dedicated designers with exceptional talent and skills. Developing a brand over a period of time is not always an easy task, especially with so many other websites vying for attention…I love the fact that our image has remained clean, fresh and modern. Thank you Creative State.”

Thank you Magenta Ink! and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership.

We’ve launched the first in a series of online videos that are being created for Fountain Court Apartments, a company offering serviced apartments in Edinburgh’s city centre.

The launch video features their four city centre locations; EQ2, Harris, Grove and Grove Executive, as well as the new Fountain Court Cafe. It also highlights the shopping and entertainment opportunities available to those visiting the city of Edinburgh and introduces the various transport links.

For more information about our online video services and how they could benefit you and your business please get in touch.

This donation will go a long way to helping Maggie’s and covers a workshop called ‘Managing Stress, Learning Relaxation and Visualisation’. This six week course teaches people about the effects of stress and anxiety on your body. It also demonstrates relaxation techniques that have been proven to benefit those affected by cancer.

To join us in supporting Maggie’s this Christmas you can sponsor Sarah to take part in the Bupa Great Winter Run on 9th January 2010.

Enjoy the festivities and all the best for the New Year!

JCI is a worldwide network of young active people in their twenties and thirties who organise and take part in a range of activities to improve their communities and develop themselves. JCI UK is part of the global JCI network which has 200,000 members in 120 countries. They have “chambers” in towns and cities in several parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and are also known as the Junior Chamber of Commerce and British Junior Chamber.

Sarah Jane Robertson, Director commented: “We’re excited to be working with JCI UK on this project. Not only do they recognise the importance of having a strong online presence, they appreciate that the online video medium provides a unique opportunity for organisations to reach a wider audience.”

Other national awards included Most Outstanding New Member, Most Outstanding Training Programme, Most Outstanding Deputy Presidenty and Most Outstanding Chamber.

The win comes after a successful year for JCI Leeds where they won seven awards at the JCI Yorkshire Regional Awards in Sheffield.

Sarah Jane Robertson, Director of Creative State, and now a voluntary Marketing Director with JCI Leeds, commented: “We’re proud to have JCI Leeds as a client and to be working closely with their marketing team. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into the marketing material to ensure it’s up to date, relevant, and consistent with the overall branding of the organisation, and winning the national marketing award was a huge achievement for us”.

JCI Leeds were recognised for a successful year with seven awards including Most Outstanding Membership Recruitment Programme, Most Outstanding New Member and, ultimately, Most Outstanding Chamber.

The awards success follows on from a brand development project with JCI Leeds, in which Creative State developed an individual identity for the organisation around their existing logo. We have also developed a brand for the JCI UK National Conference, which was hosted in September 2009, and produced a range of marketing materials at a local and national level.

We have received some outstanding feedback from other local chambers around the UK and are now working closely with them to achieve results.

Fountain Court Apartments has appointed Creative State to deliver a range of online videos promoting their serviced apartments in Edinburgh’s city centre.

The first of the online videos will feature their EQ2, Harris, Grove and newly designed Grove Executive apartments, as well as some spectacular views of the city of Edinburgh. It will also capture the diversity of Fountain Court Apartments and their success in both the city break and corporate markets.

This follows from our successful bid to design their new website which launched in 2008.

“10:10 is an ambitious project to unite every sector of British society behind one simple idea: that by working together we can achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010.”

Creative State has joined 10:10 and made our business part of the solution to climate change. The aim of the project is to reduce emissions by 10% in one year and to encourage staff, customers and suppliers to do the same.

Whether you’re an individual, business, charity or organisation in the educational or voluntary sector, you too can support 10:10 by signing up for free on their website: 10:10 – cutting 10% of emissions in the UK.

With over 5 years experience in graphic design, online video production and animation, Jonathan joins us from NetConstruct, a Yorkshire based web development company where he serviced clients from University of Leeds, Yorkshire Forward and Business Link through to Fountain’s Abbey and Great Yorkshire Show.

Jonathan will be heading up our new media developments over the coming months and working with accounts such as EasyBreak, Fountain Court Apartments and Edinburgh Holiday Lets.