Project Overview
Digital Pacific is an Australian Web Hosting, VPS, Dedicated Server, Domains and Web Services provider, and is part of the larger Hostopia Australia group. Digital Pacific have been in operation since 2000 and are one of the largest hosting brands in Australia, serving over 25,000 Australian businesses and hosting over 300,000 business websites each day.
It was very important to the Digital Pacific project team to appoint an agency that either had – or was willing to work hard to gain - a strong understanding of the complex world of Web Hosting, as this knowledge would be crucial to the project’s success. Data-driven, customer centric UX & design improvements were required throughout the site, as well as (to use a direct quote from the Digital Pacific Project Manager, Hendrik Kruizinga) “a kick arse brand refresh and identity”. Project success measures were driven by quantifiable results, including increasing conversion rate and brand NPS (Net Promotor Score) as well as decreasing the support load on the contact centre.
After undertaking a thorough strategy phase, encompassing industry and competitor research, customer and employee interviews and UX journey mapping workshops, we rolled out a responsive website solution smart enough to manage and display multiple, complex products, flexible enough to appeal to Digital Pacific’s varied user base of both traditional and tech-savvy customers, and scalable enough to meet all ongoing business needs.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Digital Pacific (Client):
- Project Manager/Product & Marketing Manager: Hendrik Kruizinga
- Search & Display/Product & Marketing: Simon Chiu
- Marketing Executive: Andy Haine
- Development Team Leader: Johnathan Tiong
- Developer: James Mahon
- Developer: James Sunderland
- Frontend Developer: Brandon Charlton
Rysen (Agency):
- Lead Strategy: Ryuji Uematsu
- Project/Account Manager: Jenny van Dam
- Lead UX/UI Designer: Jerry Chang
- Lead UX/UI Designer: Ida Melank
- UX/UI Designer: Chinthanie Kulatunge
- Lead Developer: Ryan Stroh
Project Brief
“To go to market with an industry leading site, which promotes our growing product portfolio and leverages our extensive brand equity, driving a conversion rate uplift by at least 50bps.”
The specific brief requirements were as follows:
1. Identify opportunities to elevate how to solve customer problems, illustrating what the customer can get out of a product and the outcome of purchasing that product, rather than simply pushing the products themselves.
2. Increasing engagement on key category pages with elements such as improved product categorisation and filtering.
3. Create a better responsive solution, in particular for wide desktop screens.
4. Improved transition fluidity between the website and third-party account management platform.
5. Improved customisation of the third-party account management platform to simplify the purchase journey, reduce drop-off at checkout and create up-selling/cross-selling opportunities.
6. Improved brand identity including typeface, secondary colour palette & brand tone of voice.
Project Innovation/Need
The old website had been experiencing a steady decline in conversion rates since 2017, due to other emerging providers and changes in the way that customers purchase hosting products. Having been in the market since 2013, the current Digital Pacific site required a complete overhaul to better meet the needs of customers, promote product lines more effectively and leverage the significant brand equity built over the past 16 years.
The new Digital Pacific site needed to set them apart from the competition, both visually and functionally. As a company synonymous with a very high level of service and expertise, the new site needed to reinforce this reputation, promoting their proudly Australian based brand and their 100% Australian customer support. They needed to be able to effectively manage and promote both their existing and new products while retaining a focus on their key products - web hosting and servers.
Design Challenge
The main challenge that faced our team was - how do we introduce Digital Pacific’s suite of products and solutions, “telling a story” in a visually interesting and engaging way, without using big and beautiful product imagery? On top of this, how do we communicate all the complex, technical product information without overwhelming the user?
We solved the first challenge via our approach to the brand refresh. We created a vibrant new colour palette, incorporating a number of different tones and gradients, that was bold enough to catch your eye and draw you in. Digital Pacific had requested their logo remain unchanged, so to ensure its look and feel would tie in with the new site design, we adapted its shape into a series of unique design elements that we used in various forms throughout the site.
Alongside this, we created a series of unique page templates that were highly detailed and informative, yet easy to scan and digest. We reinvented the category pages, encouraging users to interact by creating intuitive filters and sorting. We solved the disjointed checkout experience by introducing improved brand continuity in WHMCS, incorporating new promotional tags in bright brand colours to allow for effective up-selling and cross-selling. We also created a progress bar and support modules at key touchpoints, to nurture users through the checkout process.
User Experience
Today, the Digital Pacific site presents a carefully structured homepage that enables users to explore the product range, by first defining what it is that they want or need out of that product. The category pages offer new product tables that are informative, clearly laid out and fully responsive, transforming across Desktop, Tablet and Mobile to ensure a seamless browsing and purchasing experience regardless of device. The brand values and story are intertwined throughout the site, with new brand modules highlighting Digital Pacific’s Australian roots and customer-centric service approach. On the homepage, an interactive ‘hero’ module sporting custom designed graphics highlights the key company USPs.
Results from the new site to date include a 14% increase in conversions, 27% increase in session time, 13% reduction in support tickets and an overall brand NPS increase from 56 to 60.
Digital - Corporate
This award celebrates innovation and creativity in design of a unique user experience in the combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content for websites. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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