Andersen Construction needed a new web presence to showcase their vast experience in the world of commercial construction. Since 2005, Serum has been working with Andersen as their interactive agency of record. In today's environment, the longevity of the relationship speaks for itself.

Tinkering with Success
By any standard, before the site redesign, Andersen Construction was one of the most successful commercial contractors in the Pacific Northwest. Andersen has been and continues to be the builder of choice for some of the largest construction projects in industries ranging from healthcare to residential condo buildings.

In this context, careful user testing and analysis was critical to Andersen's website redesign. The smallest design changes would have massive implications (positive or negative) on the overall brand. Our job was to make sure the redesign would only strengthen what was already in place.

Change Now, Not in the Distant Future
Andersen Construction is a growing business, and Serum understood at the start of the initiative that Andersen could not wait forever for a redesign to happen, as each day represents a lost opportunity.

Serum took a close look at Andersen's existing portfolio of completed projects to gain an in-depth understanding of the components of each project.  Then, we leveraged that knowledge into building a custom website centered around a powerful project gallery that can support an unlimited number of project images, descriptions and testimonials.

The Vision
To kick-off the redesign process, Serum began with an intensive strategic planning phase. We interviewed Andersen's key stakeholders, inclusive of Andersen's Key Executives, Operations, and Marketing & Sales departments. Following this, we assessed their technology infrastructure and the complexity of changing various parts of the website.

The end-result of this process was a set of recommendations planned for the new Andersen Construction website. We communicated this vision by developing a detailed product road map outlining implementation of the website redesign. The roadmap was focused on how to realize the website's vision within practical constraints — it matched all goals to a feasible timeline and detailed how the new site would roll out in specific prioritized phases.

Thinking Through the Details
The strategic planning phase quickly transitioned to the design phase, where we mapped out the new Andersen website structure. All aspects of the site redesign were carefully evaluated and tested — including global architecture, user interactions, and a strategy for promoting Andersen Construction via ongoing eNewsletters, news feeds and external social media sites. The end-result was a flexible design structure that optimized user interactions with the project gallery and other content blocks.

Experiential Branding
Critical to the redesign was an emphasis on translating the Andersen Construction experience on the web. Significant efforts were made to portray Andersen's friendliness, warmth and personal touch. A complete style guide was developed to bring the Andersen brand alive, and a custom photo shoot was held in Portland, OR to capture the real essence of Andersen and it's work.