Illumi had only a month to develop a brand new platform for Normal, a store that provides ordinary household products at extraordinary prices. Normal is a brand known for having an honest and well, “normal”, communication with consumers, so it was important that the new website reflected the same integrity in its design and functionality. All that in one month? For many it might have sounded like an unsolvable project, but let’s take a look at how Illumi managed to get it done:
Skills used
- Integrations
- Architecture
- Mobile
- Support
Sector
- Retail
- Household & personal products
Partner doing the case
- Company:ILLUMI
- Website: www.illumi.dk
- Type: Gold Partner
It all started with a call...
...a call from the advertising agency Envision, who has been a collaborative partner with us, Illumi, for several years, in cases where design assignments have developed to include more in-depth digital elements, which demand specific code competence.
A week after the first meeting with Normal and Envision, we were up and running.
Envision had already prepared a TV ad campaign and laid down visual outlines in relation to the new website. By the time we entered the project there were only two months to go before the Normal campaign was scheduled for TV screens nationwide.
Actually, we only had one month to develop a platform for the new website, as Normal wanted to add content to it themselves afterwards.
The key to good collaboration between several offices
In order to realise the assignment in a relatively short time it was necessary to understand and quickly coordinate expectations between the three parties in relation to areas of expertise and competent decision-making.
There was a realistic specification of demands and a mutual trust that we, in our individual areas of expertise, were competent enough to make ad hoc decisions regarding the development of the site, and these were the reasons we succeeded in creating a well-functioning site in a timely manner. And, of course, a whole lot of hard work – naturally!
So what exactly did we do together with Normal? We had three main goals:
👉 Establish a new website that was user-friendly for mobiles and focused on brand recognition.
👉 Set up a site in two language versions. We have since expanded this to five languages.
👉 Train key employees in using the site.
A user-friendly website – without too much of a fuss!
Normal is a brand known for having an honest and very “normal” communication with consumers, so it was important that the new website reflected the same integrity in its design and functionality.
The Umbraco CMS solution we have developed together is primarily designed to give Normal’s customers the best user experience from a mobile unit – a user experience providing the customer with information about shops and a range of products.
The simplicity of the site intends to answer customer questions about where the nearest shop is, which goods they have on the shelves, and what they cost.
”A mobile-first solution is an advantage for companies trading in short-term consumer goods, where competition is tough and consumers themselves search for comparisons of prices and products. Both current and relevant content are important factors on a mobile-friendly site as they affect your placement on Google’s search result pages.”
Bara lung, du är helt Normal or "Relax, you're completely Normal"
Normal needed a multilingual website; a website with several language versions is able to increase user experience and secure more direct communication with customers in other markets than just Denmark.
The solution, which we have developed together with Normal, currently contains five language versions, with a sixth on the way.
It is quick and easy to increase the number of languages on the site in line with the company opening stores in new markets.
By using meta tags we have ensured that search engines understand how to index the language versions correctly and display the correct language version when, for example, customers visit the Normal website from a Norwegian, Swedish or German IP address.
Why is too little time sometimes an advantage?
Collaborating with Normal, the pressure of time became the decisive factor as we ended up with a site that delivered precisely what it should in a simple and user-friendly way – and met the deadline!
In our experience – and this case is no exception – all collaborating parties need to carry out a number of selections and additional choices, in order for the product to be much simpler and user-friendly for the final user. In this case, the solution needed to be straightforward and easy to grasp for Normal’s employees to work with independently, and it had to be a good digital experience for customers visiting the website.
We prioritised a good experience handing over the new site
At Illumi we like to follow our projects to their conclusion, and only “let loose” our clients when we are sure that they have the necessary insight to achieve success with the new platform.
Although time was tight, we prioritized holding a workshop for Normal’s key employees, through which we trained them to set up new content themselves and be responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of content on the site. After the workshop, they were pretty much self-sufficient.
”Illumi are good at implementation. They move quickly, are quick to understand the assignment, and are quick to get things set up and delivered.”
