The Brief
Our client had an existing website, but they did not feel it was fit for purpose. The 'cartoon' style that was used undermined the importance of the service offered and they wanted to bring the website up to date with a modern, cleaner feel. They were reluctant to use imagery other than icons and they wanted the loan application process to be more 'personalised and welcoming'. In addition, they also required a filter system that could redirect visitors if they did live in post codes that were covered by our client.
Finally, they also wanted a jobs board that would display job opportunities together with a form that a visitor could fill in the express their interest.
Our Approach
From a technical perspective, this project had three key aspects to address:
1. The initial filter to only permit people living within certain post code areas access to the loan application form.
2. The personalised application form.
3. The jobs board with the linked form for the visitors to fill in.
Our client has a coverage of in excess of 100 post codes, so the filter process not only had to cover this number of options but also be able to handle the different ways that visitors could actually input their post codes. This was all successfully managed through the use of wildcards and a plugin that displayed content dependent upon the visitor input.
Gravity Forms was used for the personalised application form. By splitting the form into pages and using ajax for inputs to be added to the form with the page refreshing, we were able to create a fully personalised application form. The first question asks for the visitors name and thereafter each question addresses the visitor by that name and make the whole process much more user-friendly.
Gravity Forms and Custom Posts were the solution for the jobs' boards with a form being automatically generated that is linked to each job offering so my client could track and allocate each expression of interest to the relevant job opportunity.
From a design aspect, bold colours were used to highlight key areas of the site to keep the visitors attention to what the client wanted them to do. The filter form also incorporated some animation to further drive visitors to the correct part of the page.
The Result
The site has proved to be hugely successful and fully meeting the brief. The site now processes over 30 applications a day. The client has commented that the site is a significant improvement on the previous site and is exactly what they were looking for.
