Problem Statement
Honeywell has a vast portfolio of building solutions and products, but they were all living on 172 individual websites. In order to better showcase all these building offerings, cut the cost on unnecessary extra websites, and increase conversion, the business needed to host them in one place.
Project Goals
Combine offerings into understandable categories for the users.
Optimize the site for better SEO, cross browser, and mobile friendly.
Identify and implement new components for country specific requirements.
Grow revenue by increasing organic visits and creating better content resulting in higher conversion rates.
Research Methods
Journey Mapping
Client Interviews
Persona Development
Prototyping
Site Map
Early Architecture
Discovering early that there was a lot of content we needed definitions for from the business. Myself and a content strategist booked the company game room for weeks hashing out drafts of how our users (future and current customers) interact with the sites today and how that can be translated into the new site. We identified the following three types of users.
Products
This group of users is either a future or existing customer searching for a product to buy or replace. This was also an appropriate spot to surface brands to access that brand's suite of offerings.
Building Solutions
This group of users is either a future or existing customer searching for solutions to their existing/future problem. Here the users can research into real time examples of iconic building solutions using Honeywell's offerings. These users can also search by the overarching offering categories; Fire, Safety, Security, and Comfort.
Industry
This group of users is either a future or existing customer searching for solutions to their existing/future problem by their industry. This strategy addresses this customers immediate need, but also exposes them to possible future needs.
When reviewed with the client, they quickly realized we were missing many parts of the business. This lead to an in-person workshop to discuss the needs with all 12 stakeholders.
Workshop
Site Map Workshop
In Atlanta, we held stakeholder interviews and workshops to determine the needs of their site. I developed and ran a workshop that involved printing out a large scale current state site map. I then tasked each one of the stakeholders to place their pieces of the business when they thought it belonged on the site map.
Discussion
I then went one post it at a time asking which stakeholder wrote what and why they placed it within that part of the site. This exercise allowed the team to learn both about the connections each part of their business had with the existing site and identified key areas we were missing from the site map. This exercise built our relationship further with each stakeholder because they now had a basic understanding of what we were trying to do.
This workshop resulted in a weekly check-ins with the business to talk through further enhancements to the sitemap in tandem with template and component identification.
Testing
Tree Testing
Now that we had active feedback from the client, it was time to engage the current and future users of the new website. One test was emailed to their current clients, while the other was set up as a website intercept on six of their higher traffic sites for current and existing clients to take.
The goals of this test are as follows:
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Is the content hierarchy well structured?
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Is the taxonomy and navigation labeling appropriate?
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Can users find what they're looking for?
The questions asked and results are as follows:
Where would you look to find product documentation?
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Products > Brand > Product Detail 75%
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Support > Contact/Approvals/Tech Manuals/Self-Help Video 25%
Where would you look to find a distributor?
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Support > Find a distributor 64%
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Products > Brand > Product Category 36%
Where would you look to find a Honeywell office location?
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Support > Contact 93%
Where would you look to find a system integrator?
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Support > Contact 50%
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Solutions > Optimization>Services 35%
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Products > Brand > Category 15%
Where would you look to find a technical support for a product/system you own?
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Support > Tech Manuals 40%
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Support > Contact 40%
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Products > Product Category > Product Detail 20%
Where would you look to contact the right customer service team for your issue?
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Support > Contact 93%
Where would you look to learn more about Honeywell’s capability in smart buildings?
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Solutions > Building Case Studies 40%
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Solutions > Comfort > Systems 30%
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Solutions > Optimization > Systems 30%
Where would you look to find safety brands?
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Solutions > Safety > Brands 50%
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Products > Brand > Product Category 50%
Where would you look to find a brand specific product?
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Products > Brand > Product Category 60%
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Products > Brand > Product Details 34%
Where would you look to find training for a system or product?
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Support >Trainings 93%
Where would you look to become a Honeywell partner?
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Support > Become a Distributor 86%
Where would you look to find Education Security Solutions?
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Solutions > Security > Systems 86%
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Industry > Education > Services > Security 14%
Where will I find information on Energy Saving Performance Contract?
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Solutions > Optimization > Services 65%
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Solutions > Optimization > System 23%
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Products > Product Category > Product Detail 12%
This test confirmed a lot of our assumptions to move forward into template creation and mapping exercise to engage our creative and technology partner.
Component
Mapping
Template and Component Identification
While minor site map edits were being perfected, I collaborated with our art director and contracted IT supplier to develop a system that would translate from sitemap to template to component implementation from the CMS. This process created a more seamless connection between the deliverables and allowed us all to reference the same documents to check and balance one another. Which is never bad in a project of this capacity.
This step that could had been multiple documents turned into three thorough documents that everyone understood. This was all possible by educating and involving the entire team early on how were we going to proceed to ensure everyone could track our progress.
Learnings
This project started with myself and a content strategist working through piles of information from the client with zero direction. If I were in this situation again, I would push (even harder than we did) for a formal kickoff with all involved at the beginning of the project. It was when we received our stakeholder resources when we were able to build.