After months of anticipation, the new Zend.com site launched this week. The site for Zend, the PHP Company, was thought-up and redesigned from the ground up by Varien on the basis of criteria gathered during a site audit on Zend’s previous site. The feedback from the site-audit illuminated the need for an overhaul to the information architecture of the site as well as urged more focus in the overall messaging of the site.

Working closely with the Marketing team of Zend based in Cupertino, Germany, and Israel, Varien set to architect a site that would account for much of Zend’s existing multi-lingual content, their new content and integrate content dispersed in different Zend entities online.

The new design established a clear information hierarchy and visual language with type, color and composition used consistently on every page. From a marketing standpoint, the call out banners throughout the site were given ample space, refined messaging and a matching look and feel that communicates Zend’s image as a professional, modern, tech-savvy company. New features such as Product Showcase and Browse by user type were added to give users yet another way of finding relevant information fast.

Another goal that the new design set to accomplish was to make major processes on the site such as Downloads, Store, Support and My Account more efficient. To achieve this, Varien collaborated with specific departments at Zend to accommodate their unique customer or product-related needs.