Giving shops.ca a makeover.

The Situation

Cadillac Fairview owns and operates approximately 30 of Canadas premier shopping centres. Their consumer-facing website, shops.ca, not only provides information such as mall and store locators, but also seasonal updates on the latest trends and gift ideas. Due to increased traffic to the website courtesy of successful marketing initiatives, Cadillac Fairview wanted a redesign of shops.ca so that its look and function would match consumers expectations of the Cadillac Fairview experience. In short, they wanted to bring the experience a shopper has at a Cadillac Fairview shopping centre to the online world.

The redesign had to achieve two objectives. The first being to update the look of the site to reflect the simple, clean, cosmopolitan, aspirational and stylish characteristics of the Cadillac Fairview brand and its target customers. The second was to enhance the presence and accessibility of information consumers were after, such as shopping guides, trend reports, find a shopping centre/store, contests and gift cards. In addition, the design would have to be easy to implement and maintain since Cadillac Fairview staff would need to update information on a seasonal basis.

The Solution

For the redesign project, T4G took the initial step of creating five user personas to help focus the team on developing a site for the right target group. Once the information architecture and wireframes were developed, usability testing was conducted with actual target users. Testing helped ensure that users could find the information they were looking for easily and that they found value from elements such as the gift guides and trend reports, since these are what draw people back to the site again and again. Based on this testing, revisions were made to the wireframes and then the design process began. The design team worked not only on the look of the site, but how it read as well by providing copywriting for the non-update portions of the site. Clear, concise content made the site easy to browse and read, which added to its overall usability. The final stage for T4G involved developing the html and Flash code required for implementation.

The Solution

With a fresh, elegant look, shops.ca reflects Cadillac Fairviews marketing and in-mall creative materials, helping to solidify the brand in the minds of consumers. As well, valuable consumer information is now easy to locate. The reaction to the new look from consumers has been extremely positive.

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