From marketing website redesign to research microsite and more.

After years of growth and innovation, VitalSource was ready for a marketing website redesign in HubSpot CMS. All the education technology leader needed was a trusted partner to guide them through the complex reorganization, redesign, and development process after multiple acquisitions in quick succession.

To help showcase their expanded offerings to their new audience segments, VitalSource reached out to us for an updated look and user experience. We kicked off the marketing website redesign project in April 2020 and quickly identified several key focus areas for project success:

• Tight alignment with internal teams, needs, and processes.
• Clearly organized content and intuitive user experience.
• Custom component-based development for easy post-launch updates.

Altogether, what they needed was more than a vendor. VitalSource needed a dedicated partner who could drive their success, just as they empower success for their learning institutions and other clients.

Site architecture: starting aligned to stay aligned

Turning a 45-page corporate site into a 70-page corporate site is no easy task. The internal VitalSource marketing team handling content creation for the marketing website redesign wasn’t sure where to start, but our discovery workshop helped us learn their product offerings, brand strategy, and vision of the site growing over time. 

As companies grow, it’s common for this organic evolution to lead to tacked on content and other confusing user experience mishaps. The key discovery step helped us create a new sitemap by identifying missing pages to add for marketing support of new offerings gained by acquisitions. 

User experience: Intuitive and clearly organized

After initial alignment helped us start on the right path, we coached VitalSource on how to do card sorting exercises. At Expand, we find this engaging and productive process helps various stakeholders see how each new or adapted page comes to life. Each page gets its own column of cards, with each card representing a particular topic relevant to that page. It’s a very handy way for even newcomers to visualize and organize content both on a page- and a site-level.

We conducted a few card sorting exercises with the VitalSource marketing team, as it was essential for the experts on their products to direct users accordingly. The process helped the team figure out exactly what content needed to be created for their marketing website redesign. We continued the collaborative working environment by turning wireframe review meetings into working content sessions to discuss how best to present content while ensuring the site’s interface fit user needs. 

Development: Customized and component-based

We heard VitalSource loud and clear when they said that a priority for the marketing website redesign project was updating existing content and adding new pages later even without a developer resource. They needed this flexibility to continue evolving, without the bottleneck of scarce dev resources or complexity of wrangling code themselves.

To give the VitalSource marketing team flexibility post-launch while still keeping things simple for multi-tasking marketers, our development team built the new site in HubSpot CMS using custom components and page templates. This efficient solution allows our internal partners at VitalSource to easily update existing content and create new pages without having to rely on a developer.  

The partnership continues years later

We’re proud that VitalSource considers us their ongoing web partner. For instance, we also designed and developed their research microsite to showcase their team of learning scientists and their publications and conference appearances. With our in-depth knowledge of the VitalSource brand, we were able to create a microsite in HubSpot that stays true to the main branding while giving the researchers their own look and feel. 

Our partnership with VitalSource also extends to updating page templates with new content modules and adding net-new pages for recently added product offerings. And after our latest collaboration to ensure WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance, we can’t wait to work together again.

Haven’t found your partner yet?

Reach out and let’s talk! At Expand, we value building long-term relationships with great brands. Send us a message below and we’ll take the next step together.