I’ve always wondered what it feels like to receive an award. I know what it’s like to be given praise, and I have received recognition for my work, but to be presented with an actual award – a tangible object – nope. I remember as a kid my friends would always win awards for soccer and cricket. Cricket? Yes, cricket. Being from the UK, it’s just as popular – and mind-numbingly boring – as baseball, so it’s something that you end up playing lots of. I, not being good enough at either sport – I was OK, but never “good enough” to make the school teams – I would just watch on with jealously as my mates would pick up awards for best player, best goal, “man of the match”, etc.

Ironically, I’ve got better at soccer as I’ve got older. In fact, now that I live here I’m a superstar compared to some of the teams I’ve seen play in the Adult Soccer League. Well, perhaps not, but that’s what I like to think. Still no personal awards though.

Best Web Design Services

In June 2012, 2 Web Design were the recipients of the Consumer Choice Award for “Best Web Design Services in Saskatoon.” I know it wasn’t a personal award, but it still felt good to be part of a team – especially our design team – that was recognized for its web design services in Saskatoon. With this recognition came a plaque.

Did I run around the office “wooping” and “high-fiving”, and jumping up and down with the plaque? No. It’s not like it’s 2 Web Design’s first award. We’ve won other awards in the past, such as a SIMA Award for eCommerce Development for one of our clients – Kinnaird Bagpipes and Reeds. So, in a way our office is used to it. But it felt good that I was part of an award-winning team.

Consumer Choice Award

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Consumer Choice Award, they are a Canadian based organization who provide awards to top-ranked business in their industry. Unlike other awards, where the winner is chosen by a panel of judges, winners of the Consumer Choice Award are selected by us, the consumer. As a winner you are awarded their “Seal of Excellence” along with a shiny plaque that you get to keep. Ours is displayed on the wall in our boardroom – next time you drop by the office, ask to see it.

Website Design and Drupal Development

Trusting the consumers opinion regarding web design, the President of Consumer Choice Award – Marcel Sbrollini – approached 2 Web Design to redesign their website. Meeting with Marcel, to discuss the goals and requirements of the redesign, the main concern was how outdated the website looked. Our goal was to redesign the website to give it fresh, yet contemporary look.

The design process began with presenting a variety of homepage concepts – based upon discussions previously held with the Consumer Choice Award project management team – for them to choose from. These initial concepts feature variations in design to show what the final design could look like. After discussions between both teams – ours and theirs – and some revisions later, the final design was decided upon. Now, the project could move into the development phase.

The new Consumer Choice Award website has been built using Drupal 7, an open-source content management system that was customized and configured to service the new website with the following features:

• Authcache and Boost were implemented in order to improve page load performance;
• Advanced Poll has been used to give the Consumer Choice Award audience the ability to vote on given choices;
• Users have the ability to view a list of winners by Province, City, Industry, and Category, as well as the integration of a search engine so they can search for winners by specific keywords or phrases;
• A rotating banner was implemented to display various images;
• The website content can be displayed in both English and French; and,
• The integration of Consumer Choice Award social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

So how did we do?

For more information on the work that we performed for Consumer Choice Award, you can view the Case Study in our Portfolio. Alternatively, visit the Consumer Choice Award website for more information on How it Works and Is This For Me?