When IBANZ made the shift to rebrand their organisation they also engaged us to refresh their existing membership website. By utilising streamSWEET, we were able to reskin the main design and enhance functionality without undergoing a complete rebuild.
Updates focussed largely on design improvements but we also took the time to improve various functional aspects of the site.
Some areas that we focussed on were:
- User Interface tuning
- Updating the main navigation
- Moving the sub-navigation over to the right side of the page.
- Adding in an urgent message area on the homepage.
Very useful for important announcements, the panel is hidden when not in use but easy to reveal when using the CMS page editor (a specific HTML snippet was designed for this).
- Refine the text on all pages
- New banners were introduced throughout to add more visual interest to the site. These were supplied by IBANZ.
- Changes to the CPD Search
This included the highlighting ‘Code of Ethics’ and ‘Optional Quiz’ in the webinar and events listings.
- Update automated email templates
- Improved map
The new IBANZ logo and branding elements are incorporated into their refreshed website.
How long should a website last?
We think a website should last at least 5 years. Any longer than that you’ll soon find it falling behind the times. Not only visually or stylistically but also technically. With things changing so rapidly and unpredictably on the web it’s very difficult to develop a website to survive for much longer than that.
At Stream, most of our long term clients are still using the same streamSWEET platform they originally launched their site on (Some are 10+ years old). Many have chosen to upgrade their sites instead of starting from scratch. In most cases we can apply an updated skin to the site and upgrade some functionality (within limits). This can give you another 2-3 years of use.
Do a Google search... 'What is the average website lifespan?' to find an unbiased opinion, it's surprising how short the recommended timeframe is.