Tell us what you think!

So the new site is finally live on the servers where it will be hosted. We haven't swapped the porternovelli.com domain name over to it because we don't think we're finally there, yet.

Some things are easy to change. Most of the body copy, for example. We'll be going through this with a fine-tooth comb soon, so any glaring inconsistencies, typos and the like will be picked up. We'll also do a proper re-write of some of the areas.

There are plenty of pieces of the jigsaw missing from this version. We just wanted to get something up live as soon as we can. Notable exceptions are:

• The whole careers section is missing. This will contain a backgrounder on what it's like to work at Porter, searchable job listings, application forms, and career profiles.
• So are lots of photographs. You'll see that some people appear with a "mystery person" silhouette. We've collected lots of photos, scraped some off the intranet, and we've held two photo sessions for our EMEA and Lat Am senior leadership. We'll be putting these into the site. I still can't get my boss, Jean Wyllie, to get a decent photo taken.
• So is the global office selector. This will sit on the front page and make it easier to get contact details for individual offices.
• So are lots of case studies. A few of you answered Tim's call for case studies, and you ted to be the people whose case studies have made it to the new site. You'll notice that we're looking for case studies with big hard numbers attached to them to highlight the impact of our work at Porter.

But there are other things missing too. Please help us by posting your comments below; telling us what we should be doing, what you like and what you don't. Tell us what you think of the language. Point us to better sources of content. Rewrite whole sections. I can't promise that we'll fix everything, but we'll listen to what you're telling us.

If you'd like to give clients a sneak preview of the site, we'd be really pleased to get their feedback too! Just point them to http://67.207.146.35/ for the meantime.

Comments

[Marek Bakajsa]

I really love overall fresh feeling of new site. What I dont like is the combination of fonts - particulary serif and sans serif fonts.
And also PN logo is strange right aligned.
But those are just simple details, good work WF and PN guys!

[Angela Casey]

Matt
I like the look and the content - great job well done. I also like the link through to the Edinburgh website. Is there a route to have our website look the same as the main one, as obviously it is in the old format? Also, there is a case study (Detica) which has as its result, an advertising equivalent - is that good evaluation? I think we should send you a case study and I shall do so. I am sorry we have not before.

[Mat Morrison]

@Angela - thanks for the kind words!

To address your points in order:

1)

I kinda sorta addressed the issues of Local office and country sites in a previous post, but glossed over the question you ask in the last 34 word.

The answer (in brief) is that we will package up the site so that local offices and countries can have their own sites, should they so wish. We've already begun to look at things like policies, training, brand guidance and style manuals; but as the roll-out progresses, we'll also look at how we can create packages for you that include things like web hosting, and technical and design support.

2)

From my limited reading into the topic, I agree that equivalent media value isn't necessarily the best metric to work with. I know that others will have said this before me, but it will be impossible for clients to assess the importance and value of public relations correctly if we continually sell ourselves as the "cheap alternative to advertising." I agree; we need a new frame of reference.

Do you think, though, that the use of it here actively detracts from our message? What we're hoping to convey with these "big numbers" is Porter Novelli's focus on measurement and controls.

[Mat Morrison]

@Marek - turns out I was wrong; there's no difference between sans and serif fonts when it comes to legibility.

My other points stand, though. But I can see one or two places in the site where - I agree - the way that they're used might be confusing.

[juriaan Vergouw]

Hi Mat

Like the whole format especially the choice to put the people behind PN more in spotlight. PN is getting more personal. And adding cases, newsflashes, blogs makes it more dynamic (fitting more with our line of business and our current company image, I hope).
Hope our country site will get a restyling as well. It will be a great disapointment when the main site is pimped and looking for a local site still old fashioned. I understand the difficulties/timing issues involved.

Question: are we going to present actual campaign materials along our case studies? Could make the actual outcome more tangible.

And referring to the issues of discussing advertising value as a metric, I agree it is not a good indicator of succes. We better look at the quality of the publicity created, the richness in terms of key messages mentioned, positive tone of voice, type of media/reach among target group, prominence of client brand et cetera.

In summary, well done, two thumbs up Mat (and team)

[Mat Morrison]

Thanks @juriaan!

In response to your question, we have the ability to attach downloadable PDFs of real campaign materials whenever these are available. I really like the idea.

Also the right-hand space can be put to better use: we thought charts and campaign materials would be a good start.

If you guys would like to submit a case study, it can be there for launch!

[pagination challenge]

http://67.207.146.35/news

clicking any pagination links takes the user to correct page but not to the top of the correct page. Instead the user has to scroll up each time.

[about us]

http://67.207.146.35/about-us

minor one, sub nav from left to right is heritage... and then vision...

but body of page from left to right is vision... and then heritage...

[Indexing, Some of our clients]

http://67.207.146.35/case-studies

Yahoo and Google will index this page but they will not capture the clients listed on the page. Only the images exist with file names that do not include the client name. For example, 06wheth_0.jpg and not wyeth.jpg.

[Mat Morrison]

Whoever it was that left those last three messages - THANK YOU! But you're not really following our draft social media policy guidelines that recommend that you NEVER post anonymously!

(For the rest of you, please bear in mind that (a) it's abundantly obvious to me as a site admin that the writer came from IP Address 12.106.42.132 (which is publicly listed as a Porter Novelli address.)

We'll address your three points for release. I'm particularly grateful for these.

It was only oversight and poor briefing that left off the ALT and TITLE tags for the client logos. I've been into the CMS now and changed that.

[Mat Morrison]

@anonymous - I stand doubly corrected. The CMS hasn't sent those ALT and TITLE tags to the page. Have escalated; I'm less concerned by SEO (after all, if someone's searching for - say - Wyeth - they're probably not looking for us) and more for the Accessibility issue (we really want this site to pass WAI priority 1.

With the pressures for launch, I don't know that we'll make it in time. But we fully intend to make it happen afterwards. Things like this are important. Thanks.

[Juriaan Vergouw]

I just posted the idea of a case study internally.
Another suggestion: would it be an idea to 'connect' client logo's (Work) directly with actual case studies or global client leaders? So if a client is interested in work for a particular client he/she clicks on a logo and immediately sees what kind of work has been done or even contactpersons were involved in the project. The latter could be contacted sooner if there is a direct link to these account people. The only thing is that we need enough case studies and I can imagine this is a problem in itself...

[Mat Morrison]

@juriaan

That's what we thought, too. The thing is - we don't have case studies on the site for all the clients yet. For some of them, we'll NEVER have public-facing case studies.

And I worry that - if there's only one case study per client - it will look like we've only done one project - whatever the language we use around it.

Another worry (weirdly) is headhunters. We don't always want our competition to know the names of the team working on a particular client.

But still - you think it's a good idea. We used to think it was a good idea. Perhaps it is a good idea. We'll revisit this after launch.

[Mat Morrison]

@juriaan - you'll notice, though, that we include a named contact person with each case study! That way,

(a) people who are interested can seek more information

(b) we demonstrate clearly to the world how the work we do is a product of the people who work here, their expertise, creativity, and intelligence.

[juriaan Vergouw]

yes, you are right, there is some connectiveness with account people next to cases which is a great win.
It looks like we have a real, vibrant site now. There are 'real people' working at PN.
Updates on PR prices won (e.g.Sabre) will be posted under the 'News' button right?
We should make sure we all add relevant links in news updates or new cases (e.g. link case to media coverage). Make it more SEO proof.
Hope that country sites will be upgraded as well
asap as most formats will look so outdated. But first things first..
Great stuff Mat.

[Mat Morrison]

Thanks @juriaan. We're quietly proud of it. However, the real shizzlestorm will (no doubt) start after we go live and everyone SUDDENLY finds the problems we've nbot noticed.

[Victoria Baker]

HI ... Love the site and thought I would just have a play with making some design suggestions... to see what you think....

Secondary navigation...

I think is a little clunky... and for those who us who are not familiar with the site structure may / did at first mistake it for the crumb trail...

What I thought would be yummy to see from a smooth sequencing point of view is if the coloured statement bars... such as:

-div class="header-quote"-
-div class="header-question-answer"-
-div class="header-question-answer work"-

could occupying a consistent height throughout the site, - this would help to reduce the visual jumping in the navigation and help focus the attention on the change of the content... rather than design...
Then add to the secondary navigation links section a colour bg which matched the rollover status of the active link button (page title) which the viewer was on... and if there was no secondary links needed for the section there would be a nice clean white stripe across the site.

[Amanda Sheldon]

Sorry for just logging on now. I like the site overall. One small thing, I am viewing the site through IE and the fonts are really strange. I know you mean some to be huge, but they are really huge and take up most of the real estate on a lap top. Also, on the home page the hot news link is getting cut off by images. You may have already fixed this. I have some comments on clients that I will send separately after discussion with some other folks.

[Mat Morrison]

@amanda (I've replied under separate cover, but thought I ought to post here, too)

1) Because we've built this to be accessible to the vision-impaired, by pressing CTRL-minus and CTRL-plus you should be able to change the size of the fonts. This may help in the short term.

2) They ARE a bit big. We may address this in later versions.

We've built the site for 1024x768 monitors (rapidly becoming the minimum standard.) Most people have 1280x800 or so.

Taking people who visit the current Porter Novelli site as the standard, we find:

33% have 1024x768 (and falling)
25% have 1280x800 (and rising)
16% have 1280x1024 (and rising)

Everyone else is outsize.

Netbooks will probably skew this downwards again, as will mobile devices like the iPhone. We'll be dealing with this audience as soon as it becomes important enough.