Coyle Site Launch: Revisit and Re-Engineer

In 2004, we built a site for Coyle Engineering, one of Texas' premier civil engineering firms. At the time, the site was cutting-edge. A sleek, well-architected design, coupled with the client's ability to manage their own content, made the site a powerful marketing tool for the thriving company.

But a lot has changed in five years. For one, the Internet has evolved immensely. Advances in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Flash have fueled an exponential growth in not only design capabilities, but functionality as well.

And Coyle also has grown impressively. With multiple award-winning projects and two consecutive appearances on the San Antonio Business Journal's "Best Places to Work" list, Coyle Engineering is doing bigger business today than ever before.

It was time to re-engineer

We sat down with the client and laid the groundwork for a new website. We started by setting some goals:

1. The new site would have to reflect a professional, well-established company that has done quality work for more than 15 years. 
2. The site would have to appear modern, in order to compete for top-tier clients that demand state-of-the-art engineering.
3. Finally, in order to attract the best potential employees, the site would have to be unique—a web presence that would stand out among the competition.

Goals in mind, we set out to design a site that would satisfy all the client's needs and be a beautiful representation of what we do here at Digett.

Our first big decision was to build the site in Flash, a proven way to establish a brand as unique and modern.

Marrying Drupal and Flash

It is important to note that, typically, sites built in Flash cannot be content managed by the client. However, Coyle is different in that we've used Drupal to build an HTML site behind the Flash so that they can edit their own content—and the Flash will update automatically. Rather than call us to make changes, they do it themselves, which is what Drupal is all about.

Another notable issue with Flash is that search engines like Google can't see Flash content. But because we've built an HTML site behind the scenes, search engines will be able to index the site and all the content, making it easier for people to find Coyle. It also allows users to bookmark pages within the Flash because each page has a unique URL.

Design and Navigation

As for the design of the website, I tried to keep it simple and clean. The home page serves to introduce the company and show off a piece of their work at the same time. Interior pages I kept very simple and consistent so that the user would be well-oriented at all times.

Navigation is the most unique aspect of this site. We took full advantage of Flash to create movement that grabs attention. The movement also serves to inspire the user to explore the entire site, not just the pages they came to see.

I think you'll agree that the re-Coyle project was a success. We're proud of the effort we've put forth and certainly excited to share with you the final product.