Personalised Plates Website Changes December 3rd 2008

Posted December 4th, 2008 in Case Studies

We launched what is effectively the 4th version of the Personalised Plates website yesterday with a slightly different flow for people searching for plates, and more emphasis on the different plate styles available.

Version 3 Homepage

This is a screenshot of the "version 3" homepage before we made the changes go live yesterday afternoon. The main content area is fairly minimal but it's very clear that you come to the website and search for a plate for your car.

Version 4 Homepage

The screenshot below shows the new Personalised Plates homepage. You can see the navigational layout of the website is exactly the same as before (the header banner changes on each pageview, hence being different from the above screenshot).

The main area on the homepage is now full of colourful content and the user has two options: the first to either do a search for their plate idea or to first choose their plate style and then search for the plate idea.

 

Selecting the plate style

Either way they choose to go, the visitor is given the option to select a plate style as shown in the screenshot below. In the previous version of the website visitors were able to choose their style but it was by way of a popup window and not so "in your face". Now it's very clear that they have a choice about the design in the background of the plate as well the plate legend itself.

Adding spacing to the plate

The final screenshot below shows the "spacing" page. If the plate searched on has less than 6 characters or contains one or more letter I or number 1 it is possible to add spaces between the letters on the personalized plate. This spacing option was previously only displayed to people buying their plate online but is now available for those just making an enquiry as well.

Conclusion

It took a lot longer than expected to modify the site to have the new flow in place, partly due to the sheer number of possible ways through the enquiry process (which aren't all that apparent to the end user).

Interestingly, the look of the forms and the process the user goes through hasn't really changed all that much but what's going on behind the scenes has been considerably modified. I've also managed to sort out a lot of the "spaghetti code" I'd created as the site grew more and more complex over time into more discrete functions and classes which will make future maintainability a lot easier.

About Personalised Plates

Personalised Plates have been selling personalised car registration plates in New Zealand since 1988 under contract to the Land Transport Authority. I have been working with Personalised Plates since 1999 and have built all of the iterations of their website.

Visit the Personalised Plates website to search for plate ideas for your car.