YCF is the charitable arm of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and is based at the world renowned cricket stadium in Headingley. They focus on providing cricket-based education and events for communities around the Yorkshire area and do a lot of fantastic work all over the county.

The foundation didn’t have their own website and they wanted to establish their own personality and give users more information about the great events and projects they run, as well as reveal more about the Yorkshire Cricket Museum. They came to us and we put together a bespoke package to create their online presence.

Scoping & Planning

YCF is made up of trustees, paid staff and volunteers, each with their own role in supporting the aims and goals of the foundation. Tom (Project Management), Louis (Design) and Lola (Content) met with a focus group from the YCF team (in the Chairman’s suite, no less!) to find out the main messages they wanted to convey and what information needed to be presented to their target audience.

After a couple of hours of questioning from us, it was deduced that the main aims of the website were:

• to promote the work of YCF and rouse community participation

• to encourage users to donate to YCF so they can continue to deliver these important projects

• to promote the museum and archives, and unearth new cricket treasures!

It was also clear that the target audience for the website was pretty wide – ranging from general Yorkshire County Club members, education staff that may want to organise a visit to the museum, parents/carers to young people with a burgeoning interest in cricket.

With these objectives in mind, we were able to create a sitemap, content plan and interactive wireframes for YCF to view online and get an idea for the look and feel of their new website before starting to fully design the pages. With this plan in place and all of the focus group in agreement, we set to work on some stunning visuals.

Design

Cricket is obviously a dynamic subject and YCF have lots of fantastic, high quality imagery of the events they organise, so it was important that the new website had a lot of space for images and videos to showcase and demonstrate all of the great projects that cricket fans can get involved with. Louis designed the website with huge image headers to really show their photography off.

Because YCF hold so many events all year round, we made sure an interactive events calendar was front and centre on the homepage so that users could see what was on offer in one click. A news feed was also included with enticing thumbnail images so show website visitors at a glance what’s going on and coming up next.

Call to actions in the form of huge donation buttons run throughout the site in the header and explain to users why their money makes the difference for YCF and how they can simply donate online via JustGiving. Making donation simple and keeping it online gives an added incentive for users to give one-off donations or complete a direct debit electronically for regular giving.

Another key aspect of the site is its promotion of the Yorkshire Cricket Museum. A hidden gem at the Headingley Stadium, the museum is free to visit and contains rare memorabilia dating right from the dawn of the sport. Previously there was a page dedicated to the museum on the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, but this just had one image and a lot of text. We wanted to present the museum in a more interesting way to entice more visitors and because the museum is packed with interactive displays, we wanted to recreate the experience on the website. Louis’ solution was a breakdown of the 9 zones of the museum with the user able click through them all and discover more huge images and engaging descriptions of each zone as though they were really walking through it!

Content

The focus group at YCF were keen to bring their work to the attention of a younger audience and hopefully inspire them to get involved. With this is mind they agreed that YCF needed to establish a new tone of voice that was separate to the County Cricket Club and presented the foundation in a fun, friendly manner. The volunteers at YCF worked closely with our Content Strategist, Lola, to pass on their passion for the game and this helped inform her copy. She says “The ardour that the volunteers at YCF have for cricket is just contagious! Speaking with them for the first time, it was clear to me that this passion needed to be translated onto the page.

“It’s not possible to get those volunteers in front of every kid in Yorkshire, the website has to do that for them, so I worked on web copy that would really engage younger people as much as those volunteers engaged me in the way they spoke about their beloved sport. The copy is concise, snappy and infused with a bit of humour to really reflect the personality of the foundation and make sure that people of all ages go away with the impression that YCF is approachable and fun.”

On closer exploration with the focus group, it was decided that the Museum and Archives needed separate pages to give them the full coverage they deserved and, after speaking with some of the Archives Committee about the difficulties of enthusing the younger generation with their extensive cricketing collections, we hit upon the idea of an Item of the Month page. Here the Archive volunteers could pick a fascinating item from the collections and present it with images and a brief history of why the item is significant. We designed this on an interactive timeline so that users can easily browse through each month and read about each item in a matter of seconds – a quick cricket fact!

Development

As always, the website was built on our unique content management system Expose CMS, which makes it easy for the staff and volunteers at YCF to edit and add content to their website whenever they need to. The built-in cropping function for images is particularly useful for YCF as it means they can get close-ups on their cricket action shots without needing to use programmes like Photoshop.

One of our front-end developers Danny was responsible for most of the site’s functionality and says that the most challenging aspect was the interactive timeline on the About page. Danny says “We wanted to make something that younger users would definitely identify with and find fun to use, so we based the history timeline feel and user experience on Facebook. It only shows a few events in the same year but you can easily select and see more. It means the load time is quick and users aren’t overwhelmed with information. It also doesn’t affect the browser size unnecessarily.”

Satisfied Customers

Will Saville, YCF’s Community Development Manager, worked with us from the start of the project and said “The service we received from Snapshot Media has been excellent all the way through the website design and build process. Their innovative ideas and approach have meant we now have a website that has exceeded our expectations. I would highly recommend them to others.”

What do you think of the new Yorkshire Cricket Foundation website? We’d love to get your feedback in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!

Knaresborough Kitchens offer contemporary, stylish and creative kitchens and needed a website that reflected this. A family run business, they have been designing and installing kitchens, bedrooms and home offices for the past 17 years and have gone from strength to strength with displays and showrooms in Knaresborough, Thirsk, York, Harrogate and Leeds.

Their old website was outdated and not a true reflection of the quality and finesse that they offer in their work. Their directors came to us because the company felt they needed a website with a modern, contemporary feel that would be an extension of their ethos and workmanship.

Lola, who devised the content strategy and project managed the website, says “Because Knaresborough Kitchens are a business that design for the home, they had an amazing number of fantastic images and projects to show us. Customers don’t tend to buy their kitchen online, it’s something they need to be able to see and feel and have some help with planning and budgeting, so showing off the great range of projects and installations the company had, including case studies of real projects in real Yorkshire homes, was key to converting online browsers into showroom visitors so that the Knaresborough Kitchens staff can do the rest!

“The other really important message we wanted to convey with the new website was the fact that Knaresborough Kitchens is family run and the level of personal service every customer gets. We introduced a Meet the Team page where you can put faces to names and find out exactly what to expect when you contact Knaresborough Kitchens, as well as a blog so that those looking at home improvement in the longer term can keep up with industry news and find out more information about products, services and materials before they make the decision to purchase.”

Director Matt Johnson gave us this feedback: “We’re all really excited about the new website and we’ve had lots of very positive comments so far. Snapshot Media have been really easy to work with and the new website is just what we need to show off our work and encourage website visitors to come to our showrooms and meet us.”

We love getting your feedback, so why not take a look and let us know what you think in the comments?

Having worked with another branch of NSF, NSF DBA, for over two years we are looking forward to developing a relationship with Becker Associates

Becker Associates assist their clients with FDA compliance and pharmaceutical consulting as well as supporting the development of new healthcare products through trailing, analysing and marketing.

Our SEO Consultant, Alex Peters, is excited about working with another division under the NSF Health Sciences umbrella: “Our search marketing campaign for NSF DBA has seen some great results, particularly with the integrated Ecommerce tracking we’ve recently set up to measure the behavior of visitors from search.

“Now, we are looking forward to developing our partnership with NSF and looking to create more business leads for Becker Associates through their website by delivering another successful search marketing campaign.”

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can drive more business for your company through digital marketing you can fill in a short form here.

Our latest newsletter is all about retargeting which we use in some of our clients’ campaigns. Retargeting really works to help give your brand traction and reinforce your business’ message to users that have visited your website or searched for your products before. For some people it can be irritating to be followed around by adverts – so like any new technology or technique it has its opposition!

You can read our March newsletter to find out how retargeting works and why it works so well. We’d also like you to take our survey about retargeting (just for fun!) and we’ll present our findings in our next newsletter.

The Pensions Hub website is aimed at advising people about their pensions and helps give them a broader range of choices regarding their annuity options as they enter the golden years of retirement.

The guys at Pensions Hub came to us needing not only a website, but a brand too. Tom, who project managed the website, says “The client wanted a brand, and a website, that was aimed at an older audience. They wanted something that would reassure and educate users about their pension and how they could increase their income. We used highly readable fonts so that content would be easy to read. We also used clear imagery throughout the site so that the user has visual cues too.”

The site boasts some excellent, easy to use features.  Users can make use of the neat little ‘quick live quote’ feature, which after finding out a little about the user, displays a list of potential pension plans that could work for them. There is also the option to receive a more comprehensive quote specifically tailored to the individual. Both options are intended to make the decision easier and present the user with the information they require to get the most out of their annuity.

The site also features a handy news section, keeping users up to date with current news stories from the pensions world. The downloadable fact sheets are also a nice addition, further informing users about pensions and annuities before they decide which options are best for them.

Andrew, our Junior Developer, was one of the developers responsible for building the website and reflects “The site was really nice to build. I was able to write effective OOCSS (Object Oriented CSS) to make pages flexible and code more effective with just a class or two. The site is designed really nicely with a lot of information placed effectively. I was also able to play with a few CSS3 transitions and animations on the Learn page to improve the user experience.

“We included features/functions like page-zooming so that people who had problems seeing smaller text could zoom and see the text properly. We also embedded a quick-live-quote form that would help people get a quote to see how much they could earn from their pension in a few simple steps.”

Why not take a look at the website, leave us feedback below or on Facebook or Twitter, we love to hear from you and appreciate any comments you may have!

We’re looking for a C# developer to join our team on a full-time basis. 2-3 years and up experience, working knowledge/experience of Xamarin is a big bonus.

Ideal candidate will be based in our (very cool!) city centre office in Leeds.

Benefits include:

• Great salary
• Choice of 27-inch iMac or equivalent PC
• Enthusiastic, driven team

Sounds good. What next?

If you’d like to pop over and talk please leave us your name, email and CV in the form below and we’ll be in touch to arrange a chat over some coffee!

Strictly no recruiters – if you do call regardless we will assume you are incapable of reading

The Pricing People offer innovative and practical price label printing solutions to some of the biggest retailers across the globe and their client list is pretty impressive. We’ve been working with The Pricing People for about a year developing labelling software that is used in over 200 stores across the UK, so when they needed a new website naturally they came to us for help.

They already had a website in place mapping out their labelling solutions but they wanted us to build them an entire website from scratch in a way that was more up-to-date and would support their brand. They also had a pretty tight deadline as they were exhibiting at the Retail Business Technology Expo in Earl’s Court and wanted their new website in time for meeting delegates at the event.

We quickly mapped out the new site with a detailed content plan and once all the design work was finished we added some nifty functionality that helped present some of The Pricing People’s case studies in an engaging but accessible way.

Jamie, our Senior Designer, created the design for the website and said “The brand visuals that the Pricing People have are really strong so they were quite easy to work with. We wanted to create something that made it easy for potential clients to see how The Pricing People could help their business so the page designs are simple but with plenty of room for images and content to explain why each of the products may be suitable for their stores.”

Talking on the finished project James Ussher-Smith, the company’s Director, said “We are so pleased with the new website. I love how the benefits of our printing solutions are demonstrated in three clear steps and it looks amazing. Now we’ve got a blog and Twitter feed on the website we can keep website visitors up to date with what’s going on in the industry too.

“The guys at Snapshot did a really great job of working with the company brand, and the final execution was exactly how I imagined it. I just can’t wait to show everyone our new website!”

We can’t wait to see how the new website performs over the coming months. Let us know what you think of the new website on Facebook or Twitter.

Our Project Manager & Content Strategist Lola founded the blog last year and its popularity has resulted in a need for a serious revamp to a brand new website.

Lola says “when I moved to the city centre it really surprised me how many great independent places there were to eat, drink and go in Leeds but they’re so hidden away that if you’re new to Leeds or you don’t live in the centre they can be hard to spot.

“Many indies don’t have lots of budget for marketing, especially if they’ve only just started up, so I made it my mission to write about these places for free, contribute back by giving them some free marketing and really show the personality and character of our fab city.”

The new website features easy to navigate categories, so if you’re looking for somewhere to eat, go for a pint or visit during the day with the family, you’ll be able to find it at the click of a button. The website also has free ad space for independent businesses, helping them advertise their brand at no cost, which was an important purpose for the new website to have in Lola’s eyes.

Our Junior Developer, Andrew, worked on the project over the new year and thinks that the added functionality will help users find their way around Leeds’ independent scene a lot easier.

He says “We’ve got some great features on there such a social media links and mapping so that users can easily get to the places they take a shine to and find out all the information they need like opening hours and offers. It was a fun project to build because its a family-friendly website and it has some awesome new CSS3 techniques and animations in there making it have a modern standard.”

Now that Leeds Love Affair has taken the step up from baby blog to full scale website, the team are looking for writers to contribute articles about their favourite independent places in Leeds. If you’re interested in writing for Leeds Love Affair then you can read more on the website here.

We can’t wait to see how Leeds Love Affair is going to progress over the next year!

Inview’s technology is unique, allowing viewers to simultaneously browse the Internet and watch TV. Most set-top technology separate the two, but Inview combines them in one seamless interface.

Inview wanted to reflect their growing success with a rebrand and came to us to redesign their website. Dario Grandich, our director, says: “Even though Inview were performing exceptionally well, most growing businesses need a facelift from time to time. We helped them shape their new corporate identity and launch it online.”

“The website is an example of how a brand can be extended online. Not only does it look brilliant, but the site has content that is very relevant to their target audience and has a great user experience all around.”

We’re really pleased with the way the site has turned out and are looking forward to watching their business continue to grow internationally.

Leeds lad Jamie Webster has joined us as our new Senior Designer from London agency Candi where he worked with brands such as Sony, Disney, Morrisons, Which? and Dissarono. Jamie has 6 years of design experience and has been designing for web and learning HTML since he was at school.

Jamie says ‘I’m thrilled to be at Snapshot Media. I love all things digital and being part of such a dedicated, talented team is really exciting. I’m looking forward to working on lots of different types of projects including branding visuals. They’re a cheerful bunch that drive themselves really hard – it’s going to be great!’

Outside of work and design, Jamie’s an up and coming DJ and music producer – you can hear some of his tunes on his Soundcloud. Music takes up a lot of his spare time and he’s produced remixes for Misha B, Professor Green, Angel and Roll Deep. In his younger days he used to sing in a band and they even played a festival in the Czech Republic!

We’re really excited to have Jamie on board – why not tweet us to welcome him to the team?