Doyle: Auction House

The web changes daily, but Doyle’s website hadn’t been updated in a decade. The site had been custom built, was completely out of step with contemporary design, and had a weak backend database. Doyle was sitting on a treasure trove of valuable content, but the site couldn’t present a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of beautiful and unique items—many of which had sold for record-setting prices—that the auction house had handled over the years.

Doyle’s operations worked efficiently, so whatever was done couldn’t interfere with employees’ existing activities. But unlocking years of data constructed in a non-standard way would require exporting it as-is and then normalizing it–that is, structuring it in a more standardized, logical, and streamlined way. The tasks for the front-end website were to modernize it, make it easy for managers to update editorial content, and adapt it for mobile.

Beginning with a period of consultation to understand the client’s business, objectives, and competitive pressures, Endertech transformed the data structure for access by Drupal 8, the latest version of the robust and flexible content management framework. The design team created an entirely new, mobile-friendly UI with an emphasis on imagery and ample white space to eliminate clutter and immerse the user in an elegant, high-end web experience. The site architecture lets visitors find what they’re looking for easily and pages load instantly, despite the heavy use of images. In addition, managers can now easily modify and control site content.

Site performance was measured before and after the new site was launched, and Doyle calculated that

• Region-specific SEO increased site visibility in each office region around the country

• The total number of online visits rose 20%

• Bounce rates declined

• Traffic to absentee bid pages almost doubled, rising 80%.