AIM Solder Site Redesign

Managing Content Maintainability
When AIM Solder first engaged with Isovera, the website’s homepage was built using traditional content blocks and was cumbersome to manage; to make content edits on the homepage a developer was needed to change the site’s code. To create a more usable homepage, Isovera implemented Drupal’s “paragraph module”. By using this approach, AIM’s homepage was able to be broken down from the original content block into smaller pieces. Using these new “paragraphs” allowed for AIM Solder to feature content in many ways (featured images, text boxes linked to new pages, small “contact” cards etc) and put the ability to modify, add, and eliminate content into the hands of a content editor, not only a developer. This allowed content editors to quickly and simply add and edit what content was being displayed on the website, as well as how content was being laid out and displayed, increasing site flexibility.

Building Brand Image
A second major obstacle that AIM Solder’s website faced was that the homepage image did not communicate an accurate brand personality; the homepage was clunky, visually outdated, and did not tell AIM Solder’s story. To better represent AIM’s identity, Isovera updated the design to incorporate a new color palette and pair of typefaces to more closely match the client’s style and brand guide. This new design unified their image and represented their brand identity better than ever before. AIM Solder’s homepage was also redesigned to allow for a more accurate and modern brand portrayal by replacing previously coded boxes of content with Drupal’s paragraphs. A hero image replaced the original compartmentalized boxes, resulting in a modern looking website with a cleaner brand image.

Structuring for Site Performance
In addition to visible design changes, “internal” code changes were made to the site as well. To address the need for a more responsive website (a website that adjusts formatting based on device and screen size) and the importance of website performance, Isovera updated and streamlined the stylesheet code, and added a grid system and an integrated task manager to the site’s theme.

Converting the CSS to Sass, allowed for better compression of the resulting code and more thorough site performance optimization. This resulted in a faster website and design improvements across the site. Integrating a preprocessor and task runner into the website’s theme also sped up development through automation of code quality and browser compatibility. Integrating a grid system into the theme, Isovera was able to improve the overall page design scale, resulting in an improved experience for users viewing the site on large displays or screens. All of this made for substantial improvements in overall quality, speed, and ease of future development.