Parallax Launches New Yorkshire County Cricket Club Website
Recently Yorkshire County Cricket Club approached us for some scoping and design ideas with a very tight deadline. As Parallax is a Leeds based digital agency, we were more than happy to take on the challenge!
Introducing Phase 1
YCCC had to have the new website launched within four weeks. Due to this, the website was to be released in stages, with the priorities being the homepage and news initially.
Danny Reuben, Head of Communications said, “We’ve chosen to have a phased release so we can get the site to you quicker as we didn’t want fans to miss out on any updates from the Club. Launching the website when the Club is in the off–season also gives us the opportunity to make sure everything is ready for when the season begins next year.”
Throughout the scoping process we recognised an opportunity to provide mobile and tablet users with a better experience. YCCC has a high proportion of users that were accessing the website using mobile phones or tablets and not getting the optimal experience when viewing the old website. It wasn’t responsive, looking disjointed when viewed in a mobile browser.
To cater to these fans, we built the new website to be responsive, with a flexible grid that realigns depending on screen size. This ensures that users get the full experience when viewing the website.
Where we’re at now
The old YCCC website had a separate shop and ticketing system with multiple logins for the same website. Following the launch, we integrated this into one system with a single login for each user making it much easier for cricket fans to buy tickets and other merchandise.
Additionally, we just launched the 2014 fixtures and results area of the site.
What’s next?
This was just phase one of the YCCC digital strategy, with many more exciting developments in the pipeline. We’re going to be adding new sections to the website over the next few months, including YCCC TV which will feature exclusive video content of the stars of the team and further content for fans and members of the club.
In 2014, in time for the start of the new season, we’re also going to be launching Match Day Mode. This will transform the homepage when a match is being played, with live updates of statistics and scores, an overview of the play, photos, tweets and more, providing fans with an immersive experience even if they can’t be at the game at Headingley in person.
Andy Fitch, Parallax Director and lead developer on the project, said “The Yorkshire County Cricket club is not a small website. There are a number of different page areas of the website and it all needs to be responsive to mobile, tablet and desktop devices. In order to maintain a rapid yet reliable development process whilst producing such a website it’s essential to develop a strong, reusable code framework. We’re doing exactly that with the YCCC website. We’ve used a mobile first approach to the design and build, which means the fans will always receive an enhanced experience, no matter how they choose to visit the website.”
The new website is up at yorkshireccc.com. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on Parallax’s work with YCCC by following us on Twitter and Facebook.