The Project
As one of the longest-standing human capital management (HCM) solutions, SumTotal was challenged to reposition its brand in 2020. The goal was to focus on the overall customer experience of users, reintroduce humanity to the story, engage HR decision-makers, and nurture the sales process.
Establishing a forward-moving plan
Throughout the strategy and planning phase of the project, Imarc strategists worked closely with the SumTotal marketing team to fully understand the scope and vision for the new brand. The redesigned site needed to reflect the growth of the company both visually and in its messaging. Stakeholder interviews were also conducted across various SumTotal teams for an understanding of what the product was historically, and the goal for its future. Executing an in-depth discovery to understand the audiences of SumTotal was crucial in developing a strategy to find users’ obstacles and how this positioned SumTotal in the marketplace amongst competitors.
Optimizing for search
To support the goal of increasing brand recognition it was imperative that the project tap into the digital marketing realm to develop an ongoing plan to optimize content and design. To understand and create a plan, an extensive search engine optimization (SEO) audit was conducted on the existing website. This laid the foundation for a strategic SEO guide, which helped the team develop a long-term SEO roadmap with the goal of optimizing keywords and content across the site. This roadmap helped to improve search engine result page (SERP) rankings and increase SERP features. Upon launch, over 50 meta descriptions, SEO titles, and header titles (H1) were updated to support new and existing pages on the site.
Understanding the audience
The SumTotal audience is made up of key learning and development professionals, human resources decision-makers, C-Suite, and human capital management professionals. These people need to attract, recruit, and retain great talent for their companies. Understanding these audiences is key to driving and establishing the user experience across the site.
The overall user experience focuses on the customer and solving real problems. An interactive graphic appears on the homepage to illustrate SumTotal’s solutions. The graphic follows an employee across their lifecycle with an employer and shows how SumTotal products provide value at every step of the way. This idea of telling the story through the customer lens was at the core of all the decisions around user experience throughout the site.
Human-centric design
Having established a new brand identity, the website was one of the first customer-facing pieces showcasing the new brand. Utilizing the refined brand guidelines, our creative team reimagined SumTotal, bringing it to life through photography, iconography, and animations. The new brand was designed with contrast throughout the website by using bold brand colors and creating modern icons to enhance content.
The interactive and informative homepage graphic combines content, photography, and user interaction to tell SumTotal’s employee journey. As mentioned, this graphic gives the user an in-depth look at the lifecycle to better understand how they can benefit from SumTotal.
The creative team also sourced nearly 150 photos for the site launch that properly expressed the brand’s vision and brought more humanity to the brand.
The importance of accessibility and privacy
Special attention was given in both creative and development to WCAG and GDPR compliance. This ensured that the site was not only accessible, but also protects user data and ensure privacy.
The site was developed on the Craft 3 CMS with flexibility in mind. Throughout the project, the development team worked closely with the strategists and designers to ensure that the site build was as smooth and efficient as possible, uses Blitz caching.
Our Shared Vision
At Imarc, we understand the importance of telling a brand story that focuses on the people. By using recognizable brand names and showcasing impressive outcomes, we were able to connect with users and potential customers. We are excited to see the great outcomes that SumTotal has now that they have embraced this new human element.
STATEMENT OF WORK INCLUDED
Strategy & Research
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Research
- Project Planning
- Analytics
- Competitive Analysis
- Experience Strategy
- Information Design
User Experience
- Sitemaps
- Wireframes
- Responsive Design
- UX Writing
- Content Strategy
- Prototyping
- Interaction Design
- Front-end Development
Creative
- Branding
- Visual Design
- Art Direction
- Copywriting
- Infographics
- Illustration
- Photography
Development
- Content Management System
- Complex Integration
- Security & Testing
- Hosting & Monitoring
- Ongoing Support & Maintenance
- API Integrations
- Custom Craft CMS
Digital Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Content Strategy
- Website Optimization