Perkins Eastman
Architectural firm design and Content Management System (CMS) implementation
Duration
2018
Type
#RealEstate, #Architecture, #CMS
Responsibilities
personas, sitemaps, wire-framing, lo + high fidelity
What is Perkins Eastman?
Perkins Eastman is an international architecture and design firm that provides a wide range of planning, design, and consulting services for clients in various industries. The firm specializes in architecture, interior design, urban design and planning, landscape architecture, and sustainability consulting, and has completed projects in more than 40 countries around the world.
The Problem
Perkins Eastman, a renowned organization, possesses a wealth of content, including imagery, textual content, and a comprehensive database. However, they lack a robust Content Management System (CMS) that can effectively integrate all these elements into a modern, responsive, and accessible design.
The absence of a cohesive CMS solution hinders their ability to efficiently organize, update, and present their content to the target audience. To address this challenge, I had been assigned the responsibility of designing and collaborating with the developer to execute and manage the seamless integration of the CMS system with its corresponding dynamic areas.
The Solution
A new CMS site design that would highlight all of the firms accomplishments, projects, locations, and staff while connecting to their already existing database. The site would have to be responsive from the outset.
Understanding the User
I started the research process by interviewing the client and gathering requirements. This helped me better understand what they were trying to accomplish. The client in this case was the end user and while we were aiming to build a CMS redesign for consumption by the public (meaning it had to be easy to navigate), we also had the added task of ensuring that from a CMS perspective we were properly taking into account all of the information, it's types, and validations for all of the content that would need to be displayed in the collections.
Research Insight
Here were some of the insights gathered from the research:
Users wanted an easy and consistent way to enter projects into their CMS
Users wanted a mobile first and fully responsive site
Users wanted a more modern look as their former site was dated