Since its founding in 1972, construction services company Danella has successfully evolved to meet changing needs. Initially focused on utility construction, the company has expanded over the years to offer a wide range of services focused on installing, maintaining, and supporting the nation’s infrastructure.
Danella’s website has evolved right along with their business, with updates made regularly to highlight new services and incorporate new functionality. However, the site’s design and underlying technology became outdated as new digital trends and technology advancements were rapidly introduced. We’ve been working with Danella on marketing strategy and execution since 2017, and they turned to us for a complete website redesign. Here’s how we did it.
The Challenge
We started the redesign process by discussing the existing website and areas for improvement with Danella stakeholders. Based on their goals and our knowledge of their business, we made several recommendations. Then we collaborated to identify key focus areas to address with the redesign. These areas included:
- Look and feel – Modernize the existing design with updated page layouts and imagery.
- Consistency – Provide visitors with a unified experience throughout the site by leveraging the same page layouts across different sections.
- User experience – Make it easier for visitors to find what they need by optimizing content placement throughout the site.
- Accessibility – Assess ADA guidelines and enhance accessibility.
“Our base theme enabled the new Danella site to be built on a more modern codebase…this improves site performance by enabling pages to load faster. It also helps with search-engine optimization (SEO) by incorporating industry best practices into the core code.”
— Lee Gustin, Senior Developer, Weidenhammer
Together, We Forged Ahead
Once everyone agreed upon the priorities for the new website, our web design and development team got to work. I evaluated the existing sitemap to identify any required changes and which design templates to create. Senior Developer Lee Gustin then built the website using our base theme, which makes website development faster and easier by leveraging time-tested functionality and design elements.
The Impact
The new website launched to overwhelmingly positive feedback. The modernized design and multiple functional enhancements provide a unified, intuitive user experience across the site. Improvements include:
- A fully redesigned home page featuring immersive parallax scrolling functionality that brings visitors deeper into the site using multiple calls to action.
- New layouts for pages within the Services and Equipment Rentals sections that provide visual consistency across the site.
- User-friendly Equipment Rentals pages featuring enhanced image galleries.
- An interactive timeline chronicling Danella’s 51-year history of growth and expansion.
- Multiple improvements to enhance accessibility including better color contrast for individuals with visual impairments and image alt tags that make site navigation easier for the hearing impaired.
When you’re ready
Let’s hammer it out together.