webqem blog

We were very proud to play a part in the launch of Virgin Blue‘s brand-spanking new site, and a pretty major one at that. Over the course of the last year we’ve worked closely with the good guys at Virgin Blue to completely refresh their online presence, redesigning the website from the ground up with a brand new look.

Here’s what their press release had to say about it:

Virgin Blue re-launches its website

Virgin Blue has unveiled its fresh, new website virginblue.com.au, with focus on making the navigation easier for key information or to book flights. Since Virgin Blue launched in 2000, the website, which receives around 130,000 hits per day, has been the airline’s main channel for the majority of flight bookings and over 90 percent of guests now choose to select and book their travel online.

Moving away from the original colour palate of mostly red and blue, the refurbished website now features a crisp white background for easier readability with splashes of red to preserve Virgin Blue’s heritage and link to the Virgin brand. The new website was designed with the input of public focus groups and surveys of key market segments to create a site that is truly user-friendly from the page layout and content menus to the pictures and colours used. To improve the accessibility and usability, special features have been incorporated into the new site including dropdown menus and index pages, the ability to select different font sizes to assist readers with vision impairments, and more useful and logical ‘next step’ and ‘related information’ links designed to help travellers find the information they want with a minimum amount of effort.

More images of Virgin Blue team members and special messages have also been incorporated throughout the site to provide a more personalised and friendlier experience. Virgin Blue has built the site to be scalable for future initiatives to enable it to display and promote all the great new products and partnerships the airline has in the pipeline. The new site is compatible with the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Flash and was designed by Webqem.

During September the inaugural Local Vocal site was launched for the Coogee community at Coogee LocalVocal.

A low-key launch was chosen whilst the site was populated with useful local information such as local parks and coastal walks, upcoming festivals, performances, workshops and seminars, and a selection of local businesses and services.

The Coogee Local Vocal site gives locals a cohesive voice about local issues through the use of online forums, blogs and polls. Members can share photos, and blogs and advertise in the Classifieds section; Groups can coordinate member lists and activities; Local Businesses can list their business, providing full contact details and map location. Share ideas and communicate with others in your local area.

The Coogee site is the first of many Local Vocal community sites. If you are interested in starting your own local franchise, please see the parent site, Local Vocal Australia.