The case of Saga service homes:
Senior living specialist Saga Care selected Digiteam to develop its new website
Saga Care Finland is an operator specialising in senior housing and services and is part of the Esperi Care Group. The company has Saga service homes in seven different locations, including homes for the elderly. In addition to retirement homes, the company offers personalised catering, care and well-being services for both permanent residents and the elderly population in the surrounding areas.
Before the redesign project, Saga had identified the technical and content challenges of the old site and the vision for the new site was well established. Saga chose Digiteam as its partner for the website redesign, and together they completed the extensive project in six months, well ahead of the agreed deadline.
Meeting the needs of target groups at the heart of the website project
The primary objectives of the new website were related to the usability of the site and providing a good web experience.
1) The website was intended to provide comprehensive information on senior housing and services, as well as a smooth search process for Saga's target audience of elderly people and their loved ones.
2) The usability of the website was also to be optimised from the staff's point of view.
This meant, among other things, creating a dedicated presentation page for Saga's entire housing stock, i.e. more than 1300 apartments. However, this considerable amount of work went smoothly. Saga was responsible for producing the text and image content for each property, while Digiteam built a database of property information and a search engine for available properties.
The new way of presenting senior housing was a clear improvement on the previous table structure, presenting the sites in a visual and attractive way.
There was also a clear improvement in the usability of the website. The new site makes it easy for staff to manage the information for each property and to update prices, if necessary, in just one go. Creating campaigns on the new site is also quick and easy.
Flexible modular design - Modern and fresh look
Easy updating of other content on the site was also a key objective of the project. For this reason, it was decided to build a modular structure of blocks that would make it easy for Saga staff to change the site structure according to their needs.
Digiteam also built an organiser on the site, which allows service home contacts to update their own pages with current news and the restaurants' weekly changing menus.
The redesign also paid particular attention to the technical performance of the site, such as mobile responsiveness and page load speed. The redesign of the menu structure also sought to improve both usability and search engine accessibility. As part of the site redesign, Digiteam also redirected the old site to give the new site the best possible start in terms of search engine visibility.
The client also wanted to revamp and freshen up the look and feel of the website. This was achieved, for example, by calming down the previous bright red colour scheme, changing fonts and creating unique graphic elements.
To achieve a modern overall look, the site also made use of various modern web design functionalities to streamline otherwise lengthy sections of text.
"The pages loaded faster and now work better on mobile. The red colour of the layout was faded and earthy and soft colours were introduced, along with unique graphic elements."
The recipe for good and agile collaboration
Both the client and the digital agency were delighted with the smooth progress of the website project. The project included a number of success factors that were essential to a successful outcome.
These included.
- A clear vision for the customer. The project was easy to start because the client described exactly what they wanted to achieve and what they wanted in terms of structure and layout.
- Collaborative dialogue. All parties brought their specific expertise to the table. The client shared its industry knowledge and audience insight with the project team, while Digiteam provided strategic insight into modern web design and effective search engine optimisation.
- Sufficient resources. The client had allocated the necessary human resources for the project and produced all the content for the website within the agreed timeframe. This allowed the site to be completed ahead of schedule, leaving plenty of time for testing the site and the housing search.
- Foresight. Careful preparation avoided the project being shut down for the summer holidays. Responsible persons and work phases with timetables were defined for both parties before the summer holidays, and the holidays were limited so that the project could progress at all times.
"From Digiteam's perspective, the project went well. The client was very well prepared for the project, which helped the project to run smoothly at all stages. The materials needed for the website were received in good time and the project was completed ahead of schedule!"
Customer experience of website redesign and cooperation
Thanks to smooth cooperation, the completed website was launched in early November 2023, and feedback from Saga indicates that they are also satisfied with the overall result, both in terms of cooperation and the end result.
The high quality implementation of the new website will enable Saga to better serve its target audience through digital channels - and thus provide excellent support for business growth and development.
"Cooperation was easy and straightforward throughout the project. You designed the website to meet our needs and the end result is exactly what we wanted. Thank you very much!!
Check out the new Saga Care Finland website: Sagacare.fi
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