Re-branding a conference website 

International membership organisation, One Nucleus, recently tasked Sciad with a re-design of their ‘ON Helix’ conference website. The annual one-day conference brings together individuals and organisations across the life sciences to explore trends in bio-innovation – from developments in life science and technology research to translation into new diagnostics, prevention tools or treatments. Now in its 10^th year, the event typically attracts 250+ delegates and offers moderated panel and keynote sessions. 

Our challenge was to improve the overall look and feel of the ON Helix website, as well as making it easier for the team to edit and update information. 

Launched in 2013, the website was built on an old Content Management System (CMS) that didn’t allow for easy editing and customisation of layouts – an integral part of any user-friendly site. With over 55% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, the new ON Helix website design also needed to be ‘responsive’ and adapt to different screen sizes. 

The first stage of the project was to produce a new content sitemap and create a wireframe. Next, we considered the improvements the client was looking for, and mapped user journeys for the front-end, to show how users would navigate around the site. Many issues were being caused by an out-dated CMS, so by moving the site to the latest version of WordPress we were able to resolve these. WordPress allows customisation of colours, fonts and layouts, and is intuitive to learn – all things that were missing from the previous CMS. 

As for the front-end, the visuals, content and site structure were reviewed. We created a style sheet for the new website, introducing a new font and simplifying the colour palette. We then moved on to the design of the new website pages, creating an easy-to-use navigation system, various customisable blocks for placing and displaying content, and a set of custom banner images for use on each page.

Once we had sign-off from the One Nucleus team we applied this design to mobile and tablet breakpoints, making sure the elements that we designed for desktop use all worked as intended on smaller screens. 

The final stages of the website upgrade were to squash any bugs that came up during our testing phase, which involved loading the website onto the most popular browsers and devices and checking for errors. 

The team at One Nucleus are pleased with the ease of use and the fresh design, look and feel of their new site. From our perspective, it’s always satisfying to be able to make a transformational difference and to meet our client’s expectations. 

Your website is a reflection of your organisation and is often the first point of contact for prospective customers. Contact us at hello@sciad.com if you would like to update your current website or need an online presence.