Sonova, headquartered in Stäfa, Switzerland, is a leading provider of innovative hearing aids, cochlear implants, wireless communication products, digital solutions, and professional audiological care. Acting as the "House Of Brands", Sonova is an umbrella brand that includes the manufacturer Phonak, Unitron, Hansaton, Advanced Bionics as well as retail - and service brands such as AudioNova. Across all businesses, and by supporting the Hear the World Foundation, Sonova pursues its vision of a world where everyone enjoys the delight of hearing and therefore lives a life without limitations.
The global corporate website www.sonova.com has existed since 2013 and has since been maintained and improved by Amazee Labs. However, it could no longer meet the requirements of Sonova in terms of their communication needs, great user experience for multiple audiences and state-of-the-art technology. Sonova was also going through strategic changes that aimed to evolve from a manufacturer to an innovative, holistic solution provider that leverages digital capabilities to achieve high customer centricity and satisfaction. Plus, a new Corporate Design had been developed by an external agency for the printed media ecosystem, that was not sufficiently reflected on the website.
Amazee Labs was asked to support Sonova with the very ambitious redevelopment of the entire global website. The task was the concept, design and development of a platform that presents and positions the group as the holding for multiple market-leading brands in the sector of innovative hearing solutions and services.
For the relaunch, the goal meets the requirements of users with diverse motivations such as shareholders, analysts, customers, potential employees and the media, aiming to improve their overall experience. The website was also planned to become the central hub for all news and press releases, integrating media information of the whole Sonova brand world in one place. Also, Sonova's vision to enable everyone to live a life without limitations should be reflected throughout the site with emotional feature stories.
- Find ways to approach a professional talent acquisition.
- Make business data and important reports public and convince investors, stakeholders and analysts of Sonova's sustainable strategy.
- Communicate Sonova as a "House Of Brands" with its own identity and positioning including its own mission, vision, activities and plans.
- Gather and channel the requirements of both internal and external user groups and stakeholders.
- Setup an agile project management concept and workflow.
- Information architecture and accessibility concepts for a huge amount of complex information, that meet the requirements of different user groups and personas.
- Develop a completely new, holistic user guidance and visual language to convey the identity and self-image of Sonova at highest standards.
- Concept, implementation and development based on a Drupal 8 content management framework.
After a strategic briefing and clearly defined project goals, the Amazee Labs UX team focussed on a deep dive into the multiple user types. Together with Sonova experts and complemented with research, the team defined a set of personas such as Analyst, Audiologist, Engineer and Shareholder and derived their individual user requirements. Following a content-first UX strategy, the team developed a content strategy model that focussed on the user requirements, the brand message and overall strategic goals. The content strategy framework was then used by Sonova to develop new, relevant and engaging content. Clear information architecture was developed to ensure intuitive access to all data and information on the website.
The UX team designed wireframes of the most important pages and topics hubs to test and approve the user interface. In later stages, clickable prototypes have been used to visualize and test ideas. The visual design was created based on a new corporate design language, introducing a new and broader pallet of colour and typography.
The website was developed in Drupal 8, using Amazee Labs’ advanced workflow model and content editing experience to meet Sonova's editor requirements.
- User research and persona development for a diverse target audience.
- Content strategy that covers both the users need for information, as well as supports Sonova's brand positioning.
- Information architecture and accessibility concept.
- UI Ideation and wireframes.
- Visual UI design and digital brand style guide.
- Drupal 8 development with custom extensions.
