CASE STUDY
ATHENS VOICE
Reinventing the Athens Voice digital experience.
THE CHALLENGE
THE EVOLUTION OF A POWERFUL BRAND
Athens Voice is a highly popular brand in Greece, featuring a free press newspaper, Athens Voice Radio 102.5, Athens Voice Books and, of course, Greeks’ favourite everyday “place to be”: the digital portal athensvoice.gr. Listening to the needs of its modern audience and aiming to redefine the experience offered to digital followers, the brand decided that a radical change was needed. We were called upon to redesign and implement the portal from scratch, transforming it into a modern, useful and impactful digital space.
The challenge was the portal itself; athensvoice.gr is a massive website, with numerous categories of content, such as articles, news, lifestyle, feature stories, blogs, recipes, a city guide, podcasts, radio.. the list is endless. To organise such large volumes of information, turn it into a user-friendly interface with a refreshed design, and back it with a flawless infrastructure that allows no mistakes, was, in fact, the essence of our work.
THE STRATEGY
STRIKING THE BALANCE
We laid out a comprehensive strategic roadmap to shape an exceptional digital experience for all visitors of the portal. Our research included technical performance audits and analytics review, followed by an extensive UX Analysis. We mapped our strategy based on our findings and focusing on:
Structuring the site’s Information Architecture in a way that respects and highlights its rich content, while assisting users in finding the information they need, at every step of the way.
Coming up with a creative vision that enhances our approach.
Aligning the migration of the site’s content & functionality with our upgraded strategy.
Moreover, we needed to ensure that the identity of the Athens Voice brand is expressed, adequately and in the right way, at all times. As a brand that has evolved significantly over the years, Athens Voice’s “voice” today strikes a balance between the tone of a purely informative news magazine and that of a modern medium for all things culture, as well as a city guide addressed to the younger audiences. It was crucial that we integrate this balance into the portal – which added yet another level of difficulty.
UNIQUE FEATURES
REDESIGNED & INNOVATIVE
To redesign and implement the portal, we adopted a mobile-first approach. Let’s explore some of the most noteworthy points of our work:
Colour Coding
The colour coding logic that we applied throughout the site was critical to complement the information architecture and ensure that users know exactly where they are and what type of content they’re consuming. We assigned a specific colour to each content category and created a palette with different shades of it, colouring with each of them different areas of the site.
This technique optimises navigation across the site and helps users familiarise with its structure.
ΕΠΙΚΑΙΡΟΤΗΤΑ
ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΣ
LIFE
YOUR VOICE
VIRAL
ΖΩΔΙΑ
Navigation & Homepage
To restructure the homepage, we made sure it includes all the necessary sections to help users navigate across the different content categories and inner pages, in an instinctive manner. Colour coding was of paramount importance here as well, as we applied it on the various sections and their labels. Moreover, the header of the homepage, along with the Athens Voice logo, are both coloured with the colour of the main story's category.
The site’s main menu, in line with the overall information architecture and colour coding strategy, is always visible and available to provide instant access to content sections.
City Guide
We redesigned the entire City Guide section of the site, creating a comprehensive guide that features information on culture & entertainment choices in the city, organised in categories, equipped with search filters and offering redirections for online ticket purchases.
Podcast
We organised the podcasts, assigning a unique page to each podcaster.
Look Magazine
The upgraded Look Magazine is full of rich reporting content on a wide variety of themes. Redesigning this section within a “site within a site” approach meant that we had to come up with a completely different design concept. Additionally, we implemented every article page as AMP (Mobile Accelerated Pages), pre-cached and instantly loaded through mobile Google searches.
Illustrations
We designed a collection of illustrations to add character and to strengthen all the different facets that make up the brand identity.
Καθημερινότητα στην πόλη, φλερτ παντού, φλογερές εξομολογήσεις, σέξι λογάκια, ερωτικές ιστορίες, μεγάλες αγάπες
Η Τζένη Μελιτά απαντά σε ερωτικά αδιέξοδα, sexy απορίες, κρυμμένα μυστικά.
Στείλε γράμμα, αφιέρωση, τραγούδι στο αγαπημένο σου πρόσωπο. Ξέρεις εσύ!
TECHNOLOGY
BUILT WITH THE BEST
Replatformed on Netvolution 6.0, the site is supported by an advanced infrastructure that offers utmost scalability, flexibility and security at all times, ensuring e-commerce success.
THE OUTCOME
THIS IS THE FUTURE
The upgraded Athens Voice portal ticks all the right boxes when it comes to how a modern Media & Publishing brand should present itself in the digital realm. Our strategy for the brand solidified its leading position – in the market and in people’s preferences alike - and forged exceptional experiences with value, for every follower to enjoy. We proved that choosing the right Strategy and Technology partner really does make a difference and can only lead to success – here and now, and in the future!