Epic website development case study

May 13th 2009

Epic has developed literally hundreds of e-learning and web solutions for clients from every sector. These range from a few thousand pounds to over £1m, meaning we've encountered every possible issue, problem and challenge. So designing our own website would be a piece of cake. At least, that's what we thought. In reality, it proved quite a challenge. Alec Keith, Epic's Marketing Director, explains:

"Any e-learning company will tell you that internal projects are a nightmare. To be honest, we've had a few failures at Epic when we've tried developing solutions for ourselves. The main problem is resourcing. Clearly, clients' work has to take priority, so if we're busy our staff aren't free to work on internal projects. Resources are suddenly taken away, the project comes to a halt and scheduling becomes impossible."

So after careful consideration, Epic adopted a different approach this time. To avoid resourcing problems it was agreed to keep the key design and graphic work in-house using our own highly skilled design team. However, the development work was outsourced to Media Rock, who we'd worked with before. This meant Epic retained control over the most important aspects of the project, and gained internal ownership. But once the initial designs were agreed, resourcing would fall to Media Rock.

With that key decision made, Alec adopted the role of client. With 25 years' experience on the other side of the fence, he wanted to do things properly: "I was determined to at least try and be the model client. So before we started the design I wanted to have all the content available and signed off. That way, when the designers began the creative side there wouldn't be any surprises. Unfortunately, I underestimated the task!"

The new site has a huge amount of content, with numerous downloadable documents and case studies. These had to be written, produced graphically, proof-read and then signed off, often by Epic's clients or partners. This was a huge logistical exercise. As it turned out, around 90% of the content was agreed before the design started.

So with the content now available, design could begin. What followed was an intense period of design work, resulting in the Home Page and other key pages being designed quickly and signed off ready for build. Alec explains: "We were delighted how quickly the graphical designs were agreed. However, in my naivety I thought the difficult part was now over and I could relax. Despite doing the thinking up front, there are so many things that can go wrong. For instance, Media Rock came up with improvements on our initial designs, but by changing the designs we didn't think through the knock-on effects. And in attempting to balance the level of functionality with our ability to maintain the site easily, we inevitably had to make compromises. Add to this the possibility of some initial designs being misinterpreted and you have potential chaos!"

This part of the project therefore took longer than expected, as the designs went through several iterations. Fortunately, regular communication between all parties meant the delays were minimised and an Alpha site was delivered only a week late. The team were delighted with the look and feel - the end was in sight, but this proved something of a false dawn. Testing threw up all sorts of issues, as there were effectively 3 different sites - a Flash version, a non-Flash version and an accessible version. Together with the complications of variable font sizes, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and proof-reading, finishing off the last 5% of the project took a great deal of effort.

Alec continues: "I'd love to say the testing went like clockwork, but in truth it was crazy. We have a brilliant testing team, who specialise in testing websites, and an online Bug Database for tracking changes, but even so we were identifying and recording changes right up to the last minute. Again, I was determined to be a model client, recording everything properly in the database, but in truth I was emailing changes and using Post-it notes or scrap pieces of paper, although I never used the back of a fag packet! This stage was easily the most stressful."

Eventually, the site was fully operational and has been well received. However, that's not the end of the story, as Alec explains: "We're delighted with the new site and it has loads of valuable material for clients and non-clients alike. I honestly think we have the most informative and graphically rich site in the industry. But this is just the beginning. We've already started Phase 2, with additional functionality and we'll regularly update the site with industry news, press releases, case studies and so on. We're also using Google Analytics to monitor usage and identify potential improvements."

More importantly, we are now keen to get our clients' views on the site and how it might be improved. Although we spent a great deal of time brainstorming what the market wants, there's no substitute for feedback from real users. A feedback form is available on the site and a questionnaire has been distributed to Epic's key client contacts.

As Alec explains, despite the trials and tribulations, the experience has been valuable. "Acting as the internal client has been a fantastic learning experience. I now know how our clients feel. It's easy to underestimate how difficult it is to get everything right up front. Even with the best will in the world, things change, don't quite work as expected, throw up unexpected errors and expose a lack of thinking. Next time I'm working on a project, I'll certainly be more appreciative of the client's perspective. We all need to recognise the pressures clients are under, not just from the design perspective, but in terms of accuracy, credibility and availability of content."

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