Machine Compare

Proposal

Introduction

Bringing our clients visions to life is what we’re all about.

Working across all creative sectors since 2008, Visions are passionate about delivering excellence through a ‘first time right’ approach, in order to help our clients reach their commercial potential.

Offering a range of creative services, our primary objective is to successfully align with our clients goals in order to create solutions that will exceed expectations and aid business growth.

Your Project

“We are more than a platform. We are a movement.”

This project is right up our street, we want to create meaningful digital experiences and your aim to make better use of our earth’s scarce resources certainly hits the mark!

Machine Compare are looking to partner with a creative agency to go through a rebrand and onwards as a provider of graphic design for different platforms.

The rebrand needs to portray Machine Compare as the disruptor of their industry, showcasing their USP’s and mission – change the way the world trades industrial machinery and spare parts.

Setting a new narrative through a visually appealing digital experience, whilst ensuring to consider a positive journey and provoking conversions through well placed Call-To-Actions for the relevant target audiences.

Every successful brand needs to be responsive. The user journey at every stage should reflect the brand from the visual to the textural. The core values should resonate at any point of the customer’s journey regardless of the medium they are using.

Site Structure & UX

High organic search engine rankings are often the result of logical, well-structured site architecture.

Organising your sites content into the most logical structure possible will drive a positive experience.

Usability

Logical information architecture that is user friendly. This will enhance user experience and increase conversions.

Rankings

An intelligent structure will pass link equity to the most important pages on your site and therefore assist rankings.

Conversions

A well-thought out structure should walk the user through the conversion process, from information pages through to purchase. Throughout the design and build of your site we keep in mind how both users and search engines interact with your site.

For users, it’s about getting the most relevant content in front of them, in as few clicks as possible. The same approach can also benefit search engines; by flattening your site architecture you can make gains in indexation (more pages in a search engines index) that can lead to more organic traffic.

What Does Poor Site Architecture Look Like?

To navigate to the bottom layer, search engines and users are expected to venture down a six-click path. This depth is not ideal. Search engines will expect pages this deep to be unimportant and will therefore be less visible in search results, even for “long-tail” keywords. Users on the other hand will likely drop out before they make it to the bottom.

Creating a Flatter Site Architecture

Pages buried very deeply in the architecture will not receive enough link equity (both internally and externally) to be visibly in search engine rankings. By “flattening” the site architecture, you can promote content up the architecture and therefore improve its rank. This greatly reduces the number of clicks to the very deepest level and improves the indexation of the site.

Internal Linking

The higher the page is in your architecture, the stronger it will be. Linking from down in the architecture back up to pages higher in the hierarchy can help to prioritise the higher pages for more competitive terms. Breadcrumbs are a great way to link up the architecture, providing both more internal links and a way for search engine crawlers to navigate a website easily. Cross-linking from different categories is also a good way to promote stronger pages on your site. It can also help pass link equity across the site.

What does this mean for your site?

When designing and building your site, we keep in mind the best practices of site architecture from conception through to launch. Our platforms promote a “flat” site architecture. This, combined with the logical categorisation of your content means that your site has the most logical and usable structure possible. The impact this will have on your usability, search engine rankings and conversions will be significant.

Search function

Every page will offer a clear and obvious search function as well as free text searching to enable visitors to navigate effortlessly around the site. Results will be displayed by relevance and will offer close alternatives to accommodate mistypes.

Our Tools

The latest technology enables us to maximise our efficiency and keep you up to date with current progress.

It’s all about communication. These are just our initial ideas but the best ideas come when we work closely with our clients. Through working closely with you we ensure we are all on the same page & pulling in the same direction with a clear goal!

Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of 20+ desktop and mobile apps and services for photography, design, video, web, UX and more.

Slack is an instant messaging platform bringing all our communication together, in a single place — helping everyone save time and collaborate together.

We use monday.com a project management system which helps us plan out a project while keeping our clients informed on progress. Once a site is launched we can use the same software to support the website, logging tickets and time spent. Our clients are given full access to monday.com, giving you the ability to monitor the workload.

At the design stage we use an online proofing system called InVision.

InVision allows us to prototype and share design ideas directly with our clients who can view and comment directly on the design. This saves us time and allows us to present ideas and receive feedback quickly and precisely, eliminating unnecessary delays.

HubSpot offers a full stack of software for marketing, sales, and customer service, with a completely free CRM at its core. They’re powerful alone — but even better when used together.

Compliance

The Public Sector Bodies

(Website and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility

Regulations 2018

Came into force in September 2018

Compliance required by:

September 2019 (new websites)

September 2020 (old websites)

June 2021 (mobile apps)

The website we design and build will be compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to an AA level+.

Will also comply with The Accessible Information Standard, formally known as DCB1605 Accessible Information. Other information we will be adding to ensure your website is legal will be:

Registered business details, the website needs to display the following Company Information, the Business Name, place of registration, registered number and its registered office address.

Adhere to Priority 1 of the Web Accessibility Guidelines set out at W3C.

If the website collects user data (i.e. via simple enquiry form, or shopping cart), display a Privacy Policy informing the user what the business does with the data and that it conforms to the The Data Protection Act. The Privacy Policy needs to explain what cookies the website will create and what they are for.

Require user consent to leave cookies on the visitors machine, unless the cookie
is a necessary requirement for the website to function.

Testing

Before any project goes live we will interrogate its functionality via our robust testing methods. Our internal processes ensure that any work we complete is right first time around. Every website we produce is signed off against our testing criteria by the development team.

Functionality Testing

This is where we check the working of your new site. This includes but is not restricted to:

  • Links
  • Database connection
  • Enquiry forms
  • Cookies

Interface Testing

We check that your new website works perfectly in whatever browser or device it might be viewed in. Every website we produce is checked, refined and then checked again until correct using www.browserstack.com

Security Testing

Every site we produce is secure and safe from modern website attack methods.

We use security software (www.wordfence.com) to first of all scan the final site looking for vulnerabilities and then secondly to secure and monitor it.

If any suspicious activity is highlighted our team are immediately alerted.

We will install and test an SSL Certificate which encrypts data between the server and user’s browser

Compatibility testing

The compatibility of your website with the range of devices it will be used on is a very important testing aspect. Compatibility tests we execute are:

  • Browser compatibility
  • Operating system compatibility
  • Mobile browsing
  • Printing options

Performance Testing

Your new website may sustain a heavy load in terms of traffic. Our web performance testing allows us to check how your site will perform under stress giving us the ability to hone performance and prevent any future downtime.

Usability Testing

Usability testing is where we evaluate real world users using the final product. We use a set task list to evaluate user interactions which we record with specialist software and also surveys as we aim to hone and refine the end user experience.

Your Data

Regular data backups lead to peace of mind.

There are two ways that you could look at backing up a solution, the first being the UKFast backup, and the second using CommVault.

UKFast Dedicated Backups

  • 1 full backup per week
  • Daily incremental backups of all files that have changed in that day
  • Growing 7 day retention, the full backup is overwritten each weekly cycle

CommVault

  • Application aware, allowing you to separate your file and DB backups
  • Custom backup frequency and retention times
  • Data is compressed and de-duplicated giving you much better space efficiency
  • Option to encrypt backups at rest

The website will be compatible and work perfectly and consistently in all modern web browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge. All images throughout the site will be optimised and compressed to ensure the site has quick loading times and improves the user experience.

Process and Timescales

The timescale for a site of this nature can take anywhere in the region of 4 – 8 weeks, depending on the turnaround time regarding review and feedback. We can work to more specific timings within reason.

1. Kick off Meeting

A kick off meeting to get to grips with the project and ensure full understanding of all requirements will be scheduled. From here a creative brief will be developed internally and sent to the design team.

2.Website Content

We will require skeleton content at this point, if not all. It is ideal for us to have an idea of what content will be involved throughout, in order to give us a steer on the development of design.

3.Design

Initial creatives will be developed and will be sent through for review before a full wireframe design roll out is created and signed off.

4.Build

Once the design has been signed off we will begin the development of the site. Once complete we will review and test internally, before sending over for full review.

5.Go Live

When everyone is happy and the site has been signed off, we will then schedule to go live. We have a dedicated go live checklist to ensure all boxes are ticked and no links are left unclicked! Once live, we will be on hand for any support in the event of any technical problems.

 

 

Trust us

A dedicated Account Manager will be on hand to support and drive your project at all times. It is important to us that all our clients expectations are met with the delivery of each successful project, but don’t just take our word for it, take a look at our reviews!

“They worked with us through Christmas to make it go live on time.”

~ Scout Financial Services

 

“We consistently felt like we were Visions’ only customer throughout the duration of our project.”

~ Acuity Compliance

 

“They understood our organization, message, and the brand we wished to convey to people.”

~ Bright Futures Care

 

“We told them what we needed, they listened, and they went away and brought back exactly what we needed.”

~ Moffatts Financial Planning

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5 STARS REVIEWS

1580

LIKES

2228

FOLLOWERS

12

REVIEWS

Training

This is the fun part. You get to play with your new website. We will deliver onsite training at a time convenient to yourself.

Our team will come in and guide you through the new website.

Training will include, but isn’t limited to;

Updating Your Website Content

  • Write new content for your website
  • Successfully add new pages to your website
  • Understand how to research and include SEO Keywords in Website content
  • Successfully change content on Website pages

Technology – Maintaining Your Website

  • Understand the different features of your Website
  • Set up a system for backing up and maintaining your Website
  • Set up a system for monitoring your Website’s traffic and security
  • Identify signs of possible problems with your Website, and understand basic steps to troubleshooting

We will offer refresher training as well as new starter training via either online tutorials or face to face.

Costings

Each client will pay in 2 milestones;

  • 50% upfront
  • 50% before go live

We will closely monitor all work and update you with any changes or issues. Once the agreed work has been completed we will notify you and allow for a single set of related amends (unless stated differently elsewhere).

Once the project is finished and signed off each client will be invoiced for the remaining 50%.

Please adhere to the invoice payment terms provided. Queries or disputes regarding the invoice must be made prior to the due date. Any disputes after the due date will be at the discretion of Visions Design Ltd.

Acceptance of this quotation confirms adherence to our terms and conditions.

 

Costings

Rebrand;

  • Workshop brainstorm – half a day to understand the purpose of the brand and it’s aims/goals
  • Logo concepts
  • Colour schemes
  • Social Media Profile Graphics
  • Iconography – Visual images and symbols in art formats
  • Brand guidelines – a brand playbook including strategic narrative and design elements

£6,300+VAT

Website;

  • Research of new website and brand design
  • Site-mapping and website structure with wire-framing
  • User friendly and responsive designs for desktop and mobile
  • Website design to include all customer facing pages and interfaces
  • X2 rounds of client amends

£4,500.00+VAT

Ongoing Retainer;

This depends on the collateral that will be required each month so we would need a further conversation around the requirements of this to create a solution specific to Machine Compare’s needs.

Let's start
the conversation...

Thanks for reading our functionality breakdown. We hope we’ve answered any questions you may have had, however if there’s anything we’ve missed or something that’s not quite clear then please feel free to give us a call for more information.

Visions Design
9 Church Road
Lymm
WA13 0QG

01925 75 9669
[email protected]