make a success story together?
make a success story together?
Made by US and PortofoonWEB have been working together for many years. A collaboration that began with the design of PortofoonWEB 2.0. From that moment, Made by US has developed and improved both the frontend and the backend. With the arrival of Hyvä Themes, this was the perfect moment to take the next big step: PortofoonWEB 3.0!
We sat down with PortofoonWEB to utilize Hyvä as effectively as possible. It was decided not only to make the transition but also to design a complete redesign, rebrand the color and logo, improve the functionalities, and overhaul the structure and layout of the webshop. A significant challenge, but no task is too big for Made by US!
Hyvä Themes is the way to build a Magento frontend. It contains all the tools that Magento developers love (XML, blocks, phtml) without the elements they don’t like working with (UI components, Knockout, RequireJS). And we say this from experience. Hyvä offers the possibility to write a new frontend from scratch in collaboration with the Magento template system.
Besides giving us the ability to shape the redesign according to PortofoonWEB’s wishes, using Hyvä also provides more benefits. Hyvä Themes is built with a focus on performance and making our lives easier. Simply put, it means a faster webshop for fewer development hours. And all this is custom work. But Hyvä was not the only component of the development process; the functionalities were also scrutinized under our expert microscope.
A project of this scale is naturally broken into pieces. Starting with the logo and color usage. The basis of every subsequent decision made. The logo was due for a makeover, a sleeker design with a clear reference to the product. Additionally, colors were chosen that provide calmness and emphasize what matters. For example, the orange is reflected in the logo and eventually in the use of CTAs and other design elements. Everything has been thoughtfully considered!
Have you ever started assembling an IKEA cabinet without instructions? That’s a bit like trying to build a webshop without design. That’s why we meticulously plan how every page will look. We do this for all different devices. After the desktop design, a responsive design for laptop, tablet landscape, tablet portrait, and mobile is created. In the webshop, all the colors used come from the logo. During the redesign, it became clear that not only a new design was needed but also a new structure to improve the User Experience.
The webshop restructuring was done with only one goal in mind: optimizing the User Experience for the customer. Instead of maintaining an ‘all-inclusive’ menu, the customer is guided through a funnel, making the choices clearer. Each menu item can be seen as a three-stage rocket where the main item is divided into 2 or 3 subcategories, and these are further divided into the corresponding sub-subcategories. It seems obvious, but with a product range like PortofoonWEB, it is important to make sure that despite the large quantity, every category and product can be found as efficiently as possible. Now that the structure is in place and the design is developed, it’s ready to start building.
In addition to a faster webshop and an improved frontend, changes have been made to the backend, all aimed at making PortofoonWEB’s operations easier. There are two key improvements to highlight. Firstly, the bundle functionality. This is important for both PortofoonWEB and the website visitors. Radios are rarely purchased as a single product but mainly in large quantities. With the new functionality, bundles are presented more clearly on the frontend and the correct products and bundles are linked to each other. Bundles can be added in the backend ‘with ease’.
Additionally, a custom quote module has been built. The quote module is important because most customers order for business purposes and in large quantities. The quote option appears multiple times on the webshop and has been added to the checkout. It is essential that this module works well. With the new custom quote module, both PortofoonWEB and their customers can specify their requirements within the framework set by PortofoonWEB.
No, we didn’t perform this simultaneously. Nevertheless, it is important to mention. After the transition and completion of the PortofoonWEB 3.0 project, we performed the Magento core update. We advise everyone we work with to do this annually. This ensures that Magento and all modules are as up-to-date as possible or are replaced if necessary. This way, you won’t encounter any surprises when certain functions suddenly stop working. It’s the finishing touch to the total package we offer and the cherry on top of our collaboration with PortofoonWEB!