Commonwealth
Games Australia
Team AUS
Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA) approached Digital Thing to evaluate the performance of its website and provide recommendations to improve its online user experience ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast. Digital Thing was then engaged to re-design and develop the website, which was completed well in advance of the Games and provided CGA with a significant uplift in traffic and overall website performance.
Project Summary
- UE/UI Strategy
- Responsive website
- Live Results Feed during GC2018
- Plus 1% API Integration (Athlete Database)
- HTML 5, SEO Schema & Semantic Coding
After
Before
Solution
The CGA website was custom-designed by Digital Thing and built in WordPress. We closely adhered to the CGA style guide to ensure consistency across different channels, with the website optimised for viewing across desktop, tablet and mobile devices.
Digital Thing developed a new site architecture to process real-time statistics and publish results and breaking news across each sport. We also integrated the WordPress Content Management System and developed a highly-customised backend so CGA could tailor the content of each page.
Outcome
The new website proved far more effective at engaging and retaining visitors, driving a significant increase in ‘average time on site’ and a substantial decrease in ‘bounce rate’. CGA was particularly impressed with the responsive web design and improved user experience across all devices.
Significant improvements were made in SEO performance with the integration of the Plus 1% API, which allows users to search results for all Australian Commonwealth Games athletes. The new site architecture and WordPress CMS integration were also successful, simplifying the publishing of content and website administration for CGA staff, and handling the large amounts of real-time data throughout the Games seamlessly.
“Digital Thing have been central to the ‘digital-first’ strategy for Commonwealth Games Australia (CGA). Chris and the team designed and developed a new website in time for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and have been active partners in the development of additional and complex features such as the results and athlete database. The Digital Thing team are ideas driven and responsive, supporting and diligent, which makes them perfect partners no matter what size your budget or digital experience.”
Commonwealth Games Australia
