8 microsites for International Council of Mining and Metals

Customer: ICMM - International Council on Mining and Metals

Microsites for ICMM’s campaign to articulate company messages, stunning design which can be managed and replicated in-house, and seamless development, delivering global content.

In December 2017, we read International Council on Mining and Metal’s Request for Proposal. This required the creation of eight microsites to showcase ICMM’s publications and toolkits. Individually, each one of these sites was a sizable project.

We specialise in delivering bespoke design communication strategies for our clients. Moreover, it was clear from the start, our working style, methodology, and experience made us ideal for the project.

ICMM’s campaign involved:

Articulating company messages
Creating a stunning design to be easily managed and consistently replicated by the client in-house
Seamless delivery of global content

ICMM have a vast library of publications and toolkits. These provide information on all aspects of ethical mining. More importantly, they wanted some of these works to reach people outside their usual target audiences.

Requirements

Breaking down content into meaningful, bite-sized chunks
Refining content into simple step-by-step guides
Creating digital templates to display content across a range of screen sizes
Designing the look of the templates to work alongside ICMM’s current Mining with Principles campaign
Creating multilingual sites – translating content into English, French, Portuguese and Spanish
Fast page download speeds – many users will be on slow or poor quality connections

The work schedule for the project was broken into three tranches and completed in a 12-month timeframe.

The first step was to ensure ICMM understood how we work. Our process involves creating content first, with the design and development of the microsite second.
Secondly, ICMM would maintain the websites in-house. As a result, all designs would need to be created in a modular fashion. In other words, ICMM can effortlessly replicate the layout, icons, fonts, colours and overall style of the site to maintain brand consistency.
Finally, this is a multi-lingual, multi-site and based on a modular build process – adding multiple layers of complexity. Although not simple, finding appropriate solutions is always an engaging challenge for such sites.

Microsite Content

Taking content and breaking it down is not a straightforward editing task. Removing key pieces of information would negatively impact the site. Furthermore, once the English version was agreed upon, no subsequent changes could be made, as the translations would not match the original content.

Microsite Design

We use atomic design as a methodology for creating our design systems. Therefore, anyone can build a new page using the same elements we’ve designed. In other words, all future work can continue the brand feel and identity.

Microsite Development

Our main development aims included:

Designing a user-friendly site for in-house content editors to maintain without using external assistance
To create a unified system of websites, consistent in design and use, rather than individual sites
Create a Style Guide showcasing the various page elements editors can choose to build pages for content
Reduced duplication of content and work
To keep the sites small and fast as many users will be on expensive or poor quality connections
Ease maintenance and reduce the amount of time spent on future updates
Use WordPress as the platform – it is robust, easily customisable and powers a quarter of all websites in the world
Easily translate each small chunk of content

In addition, to complete the project, we needed to create the “Mothership”. A central hub site to introduce, showcase and link to the new microsites – ICMM Guidance.

Conclusion

ICMM’s eight books and toolkits are now presented in a digestible and accessible format. For instance, they feature clearer communication, step-by-step guides to key information, links to related resources, and much more.

Likewise, the design and development consequently ensure users have a great experience. Readers immediately receive the information they require, and importantly, in-house editors can easily add and edit content.

Microsites for International Council on Mining and Metals