Lupin World - A Success Story
Lupin Pharma is one of the top five Pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in India with a presence in Europe as well as in the US. It is the largest producer of anti-tuberculosis drugs in the world. Its growth trajectory now includes buying the rights to some American drugs, apart from buying small US pharmaceutical companies. With factories and offices all over the world, it is recognised as one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies today.
The Original Site
The original website was launched in 1998 as the company wanted to have a web presence. A lot of content was put up on the site but without a clear idea of either site architecture or consistency. The imagery used was irrelevant, the navigation confusing and the site was not optimised to load quickly. Over time and as the company matured in the way it regarded the Internet and its relevance to its business, a need was felt for improving various aspects of the site including branding, visual design, site architecture and the user experience.
Fractal Ink bid for and was awarded the project of revamping their website. A search facility and a workflow driven content management system were also to be put into place to enable the company to make changes to the site regularly.
Our Role
Our reputation had clearly preceded us and gave us an advantage in the bidding process. Success stories like www.sharekhan.com gave us the edge needed to bag this project. We were given the responsibility of revamping the entire site and to create the branding of the Company. A total architecture redesigning was also needed. Creating a site that was easily scalable and one that could be updated on a regular basis by one of their technical team members was also one of the primary requirements.
Branding Goals
While the company performed very well on the stock market, it had no real personality in the mind of the consumer. A personality or brand needed to be created for the company and a redesign of their website was to be the first step in this process. The company wanted their image to convey -
- Professionalism
- Reliability
- A human image
In collaboration with the corporate communications team at Lupin, we defined the objectives of the site. We also made a list of the issues that we would have to deal with effectively if we were to create a memorable brand for the company. They included issues such as look and feel, ease of use, download speeds and navigation, since all these put together forms the user experience and branding is all about user experience.
We decided to use a white background and very little imagery to reflect a professional image. The architecture and navigation would be designed in a robust manner to convey reliability. Colours used cleverly in conjunction with images of people for the different sections would bring the site, and hence the company, closer to its users.
Site Architecture Goals
- Redesign the entire architecture of the site
- Restructure the entire navigation to make it more user friendly
- All primary links have to be accessible at all times
- The user should never get disoriented or lost on the site
- Improve the flow of information
A large amount of information was to be put up on the site targeted at the various stakeholders of the company. Stockholders need to be kept abreast of the company financials and performance on the market. Doctors need information on the drugs manufactured and dealers and stockists need information about pricing and delivery.
Fractal Ink in consultation with the company representatives worked out the information architecture for the website. The primary links, the secondary links and interlinking between sections of the site to form a logical flow of information was worked out to enable users to quickly find the information they seek on the site. The next step was to work out the navigation between the sections. A navigation pattern to allow easy access to primary links across the full site and secondary links and third level links of one section was worked into a layout. A breadcrumb system was included to display the path of navigation the user has come through so that the user does not lose his orientation.
Visual Design Goals
- Make the site easy to navigate
- Achieve visual consistency
- Small downloads for pre-broadband era connections
We decided to subtly play with colours through the website. This was done to fulfil two objectives; colours when used right give a more human look to a website and more importantly, with such a large amount of information that was divided into sections that were interlinked, using a different colour for each section would enable the user to keep track of where he was on the site.
The site was kept very light as the main design elements used were very thin lines. Images were restricted to one band on each page. The text will load quickly and the user can start going through the content as the images load.
Style sheets were created to keep the vast amount of content consistent visually. This also enables changes in the site to be carried out quickly and efficiently.
Backend
An effective workflow driven content management system was put into place in response to the client requirement of having one of their internal team members make regular updates to the site very easily. The ‘WYSIWYG’ (What you see is what you get) methodology in the backend does not require any coding skills for a user to update information. Controls were put into place allotting rights protected by passwords.
The management could keep track of their communication with each other. The HR department could receive and archive resumes over the internet. The system also kept track of website statistics such as number of visits, the length of visits, which pages were visited etc.