Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a complex built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London. Now run by the London Legacy Development Corporation, its purpose is to offer sports facilities and create opportunities for the people of the city and beyond.
A Sitecore review flagged several structural issues on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park website. Particularly on the backend and within the CMS. Page templates weren’t configured in a way which you could build web pages with ease. It made working with the site difficult for the marketing and event teams at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
To reflect the Park’s growth plans, and to preserve the legacy of the London Olympic Games, the site needed a refresh. What started as a support partnership flourished into a strategic relationship between the Park and Inspiretec via Sequence.
Through collaboration we were allowing the team to create compelling content through Sitecore’s Page Editor, faster. Modernising the architecture to a system where pages can be built via modules so each of the design elements fit into a pre-determined grid anywhere on the site. Components on pages hold different types of content which can be positioned on various pages with complete flexibility. Essentially, changing the way the site presents its content.
Our UX and design teams worked to simplify the site journeys, presenting information in a minimalist manner. Improving the flow towards actionable pages to encourage engagement via downloads and sign-ups, and never overwhelming visitors, for example.
The homepage itself is redesigned to replace the original homepage built for when the Park first opened. As the Park serves a different purpose now to what it did during the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. So different goals and different content meant that the look and feel needed re-assessing. But only subtly revamping the design to ensure the site still reflects the current Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park brand.
The initial brief was to upgrade the site up to Sitecore 7.5 from the original 7.0 version. As the project progressed, we upgraded again to 8.1. Full migration of content was therefore made possible without having to manually move everything over from site to site. This robust technical foundation, which the CMS provides, makes such upgrades and migrations seamless.
The new site also integrates with Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s app available at the iTunes and Google Play app stores. An app intended for use within the Park itself.
Commissioned third parties can use Sitecore queries to obtain a feed of latest events, as well as accompanying data, to serve within the app. This allows the site to be consistent in the way that content is portrayed across devices. Also reducing the costs associated with presenting information over multiple channels.
Having retained this functionality from the previous Sitecore implementation, the Park has the new 8.1 platform which provides a much more modern base for any enhancements going forward, both to the app integration and the site as a whole.
From taking a tour of the Park at the beginning to launching the site, the Sequence-Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park project was a success founded on communication and trust. Our agile and iterative approach to the design and build, with the team at the Park guiding us, meant the site was created with complete efficiency. The site continues to attract new visitors to the Park, and improves the website experience for frequent and returning visitors.
We’re currently underway with phase two of the project, utilising Sitecore xDB to make evidence-based improvements to the site. All with the overarching aim of developing a new heart for East London.
