Digital rebranding for EV charging technology provider – Flo.

In 2022 AddEnergie made a decision to undertake a corporate rebrand. Through the rebranding exercise, the EV technology company emerged with a clean and simple identity now known as Flo.

Already operating with a wide network of EV charging stations across Canada and the United States, implementing the new brand identity was a major undertaking to carry the new brand identity across environmental graphics, offices, EV charging stations and ultimately, the web.

Our firm was selected after a lengthy interview process with multiple levels of decision-makers to help guide the EV charging provider through the website design and development process, which encompassed three North American regions and two languages.

As with all web design projects, big and small, the first step is always a deep dive into the discovery process to learn more about the brand, its audience and most importantly, the project goals from which we will measure the outcome’s success.

Website Design Goals

Discovery – a deep analysis of all website analytics data and user behaviour across the English-speaking US and English and French Canada would be conducted to understand who the new website would be designed for and how the viewers would use it.
User experience design – an end-to-end user experience study or wireframing would take place to map out information architecture and optimize user Flow and lead conversions throughout the website.
User-interface design – after prototyping the new website UX our creative designers would develop a new UI design system that would enhance the website experience and communicate the new brand more effectively.
Custom WordPress development – to allow control over every pixel within the new website our WordPress developers would hand-craft a fully customized WordPress CMS to power the new website and provide a secure, easy-to-use platform the marketing team could use to drive their strategy.
Search engine optimization – a thorough audit and clean-up of redirect issues and broken links would take place pre-launch to support the new future-forward SEO strategy developed in partnership with Flo to increase their organic web presence.

Website design for Flo – EV charging technology

The Web Design Process

Since 2003 our web design agency has been crafting custom web design for technology companies across Canada and around the world. Over the last two decades, we have honed our creative skills to deliver marketing solutions and digital experiences that move the needle. Our partnership with Flo was no different.

Beginning with our discovery phase, our team dug into the web analytics and performed a series of performance audits, competitive research and stakeholder interviews. All this information is distilled into a strategic foundation from which all team members can work to build a user experience that delivers measurable results by increasing lead conversions and brand awareness.

Once the site map is ironed out, our UX designers create initial wireframes for every type of page required in the new website to map out the user experience and conversion strategy. We demo the prototype for project stakeholders in an interactive collaboration tool so the team can experience the information architecture in true context and make the most educated decisions possible. We create detailed wireframes for the new site before approaching the creative UI design phase to provide a comprehensive testing ground for our new strategy that allows for quick and easy changes without the distraction of design. Revisions are made within the wireframes much faster eliminating excessive design revisions that derail a project. These time savings translate into a faster project timeline and helps the project stay on budget.

A flexible UI Design on the go.

Flo, anywhere, any time.

Creative UI Design

Other than endless revisions, the other factor that can stall the creative process is momentum or Flow. With regular meetings and constant check-ins, our creative team took the wireframes through the conceptual design process at a steady pace keeping stakeholders focused and engaged. Leaning into the newly developed brand identity for Flo and the concepts driving the new identity, we created a new user interface design that allows Flo’s product and lifestyle imagery so strongly associated with the electric vehicle market to shine. The interface is designed with a more organic approach using design elements, such as paths and organic shapes, to bring everything together into a cohesive brand experience.

To bring the experience up another level, our design team borrowed CAD design elements from Flo’s EV charging products within the iconography and design elements within the pages. On top of the Flowing lines throughout the user’s journey, small automobiles are animated to appear as though they’re driving along with the user as they scroll through the website.

Responsive Web Design for EV Charging Company – Flo

WordPress Website Development

WordPress is our platform of choice for several reasons. It’s the most popular CMS in the world, powering nearly 40% of all websites that exist today for two time-tested reasons. First, it’s open-source and highly flexible, allowing WordPress developers to bend and shape the CMS to achieve nearly infinite results, whether it’s a start-up website or enterprise-level build. Second, the platform is so easy to use that we train our clients on the system in less than an hour.

Since the platform first launched 20 years ago, the core of our development team has been tirelessly working with the platform to build a bottomless toolbox to support the development of highly customized WordPress websites.

Partnering with Flo, who is already familiar with WordPress, made the transition from the old site to the new very simple as the marketing team bought into our development approach. Our custom WordPress development focuses as much energy and thought on the layout and configuration of the website’s backend to make content management a breeze with advanced custom fields and intelligent automation to remove as much manual work as possible.

The Flo website utilizes the WordPress multisite configuration to provide the marketing team with direct access to all three versions of the website. The site targets three distinct North American regions and languages to optimize the user experience, personalize information and perform well in regional search engines.

Every pixel in the new website is accounted for across all responsive environments to present a frictionless experience to website visitors no matter which device or language they choose to access the website.

“Parachute made a very large and daunting project very manageable with their guidance through the website design process. They worked with our team through each phase, taking the time to explain and offer alternative solutions when we changed direction mid-project. The new website is amazing, and the results we set out to achieve are already piling up.”

Chris Thorson,

VP of Marketing, Flo

CMS Demo and SEO Training

As we prepare to deploy the new website and run through our prelaunch quality assurance testing we organize a guided CMS training session to demo the new platform with project stakeholders. This recorded screencast provides an opportunity to walk everyone through the tools needed for day-to-day website management, establish some familiarity with the CMS and ask questions related to the new website.

During the CMS demo, we also share our experience managing websites of all shapes and sizes and how to focus search engine optimization strategies best going forward to make sure the website ranks well for targeted search terms.

When we hand over the keys we want to feel confident that our client is ready to drive the new site off the proverbial lot and use their new marketing tool to every advantage.

For 60 days after launch, we also provide end-to-end complimentary maintenance and support that includes scheduled maintenance and security updates, 24/7 monitoring and regular health checks to ensure the website performs at its best. Once the aftercare period runs its course we work with our clients to tailor an individualized maintenance and support plan to support their digital marketing and help keep their website in good health.

EV Charging Web Design

Web Design Services

Platform

Project Overview