The monumental task of creating our brand new website began in early December 2014 and was completed almost four months later. We started the process with a simple question: what do we want to achieve with this website? After in-depth brainstorming sessions, we came up with the following list of goals:

1. Spark viewers’ interest
2. Entice viewers to want to learn more about Azura
3. Showcase our design and coding skills
4. Describe our services and present our most recent portfolio
5. Provide viewers with engaging content
6. Optimize the website for search engines
7. Ensure a great user experience

Given the highly competitive nature of Web development and marketing, we knew that we needed to find an original concept to capture our visitors’ attention. After carefully researching the competition and market trends, we decided to offer a unique scrollable homepage combining photography, graphics, SVG and 3D renderings for the desktop version of our website. To enhance the experience, we provided multiple navigation options, such as scrolling by mouse, clicking directly on the scenes in the navigation or viewing the entire animation by clicking on the arrows. On each scene, viewers are invited to learn more or check out our portfolio, creating a powerful call-to-action tool. The main menu is available at all times so that viewers can skip the entire scroll and go straight to the main sections.

The creative process took us on a long search for an inspirational image to use in our interactive presentation. Photos of surfers riding on the forward slope of a wave appealed to us because it conveyed our own passion for being on the cutting edge of technology and the latest trends. Eventually, we found two perfect images of surfers on Flickr and approached the photographer, Mattias Hammar, to allow us to use them. We were pleasantly surprised when Mattias gave us his permission; however, he told us that we would have to get the consent of the models appearing in the pictures. The first wave rider is Kelly Slater, an American professional surfer who has been crowned ASP World Tour Champion a record 11 times. As you can well imagine, the task of contacting him was not an easy one! After many failed attempts, we finally reached him and were lucky enough to get his approval. The second image is of a highly promising Brazilian surfer named Lucas Yan Chumbinho. After contacting him through Facebook he also gave us his go-ahead.

The 3D rendering was completed by the folks at Artifex Animation Studios, our digital imaging and visual effects partner. Led by president Marc Hall, the AA Studios team created the visuals of a computer morphing into a mobile phone and then into a tablet to illustrate the devices with which we mostly work.

All the content pages were designed and implemented in compliance with the principles of seamless accessibility and responsive layout. Each service page is enriched with SVG icons as well as relevant images and has a call-to-action feature at the end. Navigation is possible in many convenient ways, including arrows on the top-left block and the buttons at the end of the page. The portfolio section is laid out in a similar way, providing detailed information about our most recent projects and offering an easy way of sharing the project on the appropriate social networks. The blog section uses a filter system to facilitate browsing the articles by categories of interest.

Although lengthy, the process of creating our new website was an exciting journey on which all team members pushed their limits and thoroughly enjoyed working together. We hope you like visiting our site and invite you to share your comments and suggestions on any of our social media or via email at: azura@studioazura.com