Brand experience agency Siegel+Gale creates digital transformation for Jacobs

The international technical professional services firm had its static website reimagined as its design shifted from dry information into a tool which better represents Jacobs’ team aims of connecting people, perspectives and possibilities.

While designing a website which aims to embody a company’s workforce, display its diverse culture and highlight its core competencies would normally be fairly routine, there were added complications within the project. With Jacobs hiring 55,000 people worldwide and the need to incorporate the engineering, design, procurement, construction, maintenance and security solutions parts of the firm, Siegel+Gale had its work cut out.

It therefore concluded the best option was to design a customisable user experience (UX). Recognising this is a natural extension of the Jacobs brand story and is an integrated behaviour in every Jacobs employee, the agency opted for best-practice UX principles shared in the ‘real world.’ Each bespoke UX is reactive and based on previous behaviours, which is technology also utilised by Amazon and Netflix.

Katie Conway, general manager at Siegel+Gale, says, “It actually started 18 months earlier with a program to create a refreshed brand for Jacobs. During that work, it became apparent that the website could be a meaningful touchpoint for truly embracing their new brand promise of 'Challenging today. Reinventing tomorrow.' by questioning the conventions of websites and thinking more about how we can use the site to truly build and strengthen the relationships between the organisation and the audiences they serve.”

The redesign represents a shift for Jacobs of once adopting a content-first approach to now utilising more of an audience-centric approach. The agency, which believes it has created a website that is radically different from anything else within the category, achieved this feat after undertaking more than 600 discussions to better understand how people use websites, along with understanding what was special about their relationship with Jacobs.

“Launch is just day one for Jacobs.com,” says Jenna Isken, group director, experience at Siegel+Gale. “Building from a focus on relationship-building versus content and functionality ensures the site has the potential to get more powerful for users and the organisation over time.”