Sudeley Castle
A bold identity and website for one of England's oldest castles.
Sudeley Castle and Gardens is one of England's oldest and most spectacular historical sites, featuring over 1000 years of history. We were asked by the marketing team to refine Sudeley's brand identity and develop a website that would promote its offering and increase sales revenue.
We simplified the Sudeley monogram to help it adapt to digital use and work at smaller sizes.
The old website
The old website was feeling tired and overloaded with content. Information was presented in large blocks of copy, causing a lack of engagement and didn't reflect the high quality experience of physically visiting the Castle and gardens. The booking experience lacked a clear journey and the user experience needed streamlining with a much greater focus on mobile.
Engaging copy
The new website was designed to help content be more easily digestible and discoverable. We made recommendations for how to present content in a more modular way and defined a tone of voice that is more suited to the key audiences.
Defining the online brand
Alongside the redrawn crest we developed a refined brand identity, including a fresh colour palette, updated typography and design system that is flexible and makes the most of photography. To test the new identity elements, we produced design experiments, focusing on mobile components and layouts.
Using the new design language we developed a range of layouts and components to be part of a design system.
Using the editable components, varied layouts and the design system, editors can create pages that feel unique, but connected. Users now find it easier to discover relevant content, navigate to key areas and engage with the site. Content editors can use these elements to build pages via Craft CMS that feel unique, whilst still fitting in with the overall brand. The layout of pages adapt depending on the content, allowing the website to remain fresh and modern throughout the year.
We are very pleased with our new website. The Bluegg team were great to work with throughout the project and were able to deliver on our brief, and on a tight deadline! I would be very happy to recommend them.
Mobile experience
Analytics showed that the majority of visitors were using mobile devices, despite the old site having being quite difficult to use on smaller screens. We designed the site and the ticket booking experience for mobile as the primary experience, introducing sticky navigation to help visitors quickly access navigation as well as being able to book tickets from any page. We also considered the use of photography across the site, making the most of the great imagery at smaller device sizes.
You can view the website here.
Improving the ticket booking experience
Redesigning the booking flow
We rebuilt the whole ticket booking and payment system using Craft Commerce. Our design and development teams worked closely, prototyping, testing & iterating on the user experience to provide the best booking flow possible. The new system can now handle multiple purchases such as tickets, gift tickets, experiences and products.
The first two weeks saw an increase of 47% in sales when compared to the same period last year.
It's been fascinating to learn about Sudeley Castle, its history and the people who visit. We've created a website that much better reflects the high quality, historic and engaging experience of a real visit and we're looking forward to continuing working with the team to further optimise sales, drive more interest and launch new developments.
If you have an amazing product or service which is being let down by your website, get in touch to see how we can help.
