Website

Project Overview

In May 2011, White Pages® released an extension to the White Pages® Mobile site to optimise it for the iPad. The White Pages® iPad site allows users to search, find and share details of a business, residential or government contact that they know the name of. Users can swipe through results and find the exact location of a business, residential or government contact thanks to the integration of Whereis® maps.

The White Pages® iPad site also features images of courageous Australians, which were taken as part of the White Pages® Directory Covers Program.

Organisation

Sensis Pty Ltd

Team

Creative Developers
Project Manager: Ben Johnston
Product Managers: Scott Rogers, Blake England and Michael Stoelwinder
Producers: Nikki Bannatyne and Suni Stolic
Designer: Ben Green

Technical Developers
Developers: Cam Smith, Erik Danielson, Heather Murray, Eric Lui, Andrew Buckley, Goran Kijalic, Tim Dang, Matt Panetta and Lachlan O’Donnell
Business Analyst: Ben Dewis
Testers: Deepa Sainath, Lakshmi Gopinathan and Louise Lonergan
Analytics: Christopher Mason and Denise Yeung

Project Brief

Objectives
- To provide another way for Australians to search for a business, residential or government contact.
- To provide a market-leading, innovative and user-friendly application for the popular iPad device, while reaching new target audiences and creating usage growth.
- To optimise the White Pages® iPad site map functionality (when maps are used, they should be fast and useful).
- To build on the already impressive digital reputation of the White Pages® brand and product offering.
- To feature the images of the White Pages® Directory Covers Program.

Target Market
Highly connected Australians aged 25 to 55 who are early adopters and fit into one of the following categories:
- Non White Pages® users (never engaged with White Pages®) - to provide them with the opportunity to trial White Pages® in a digital format.
- Lapsed White Pages® users (previously engaged with White Pages® but now using other sources) - to make White Pages® relevant to them again.
- Existing White Pages® users (currently using White Pages®, in particular the online and/or mobile site) - providing them with another way to access White Pages®.

Project Innovation / Need

-GPS functionality-allows the operator to use their ‘Current Location’ when searching for a contact.

-Social media integration-If the user searches for a business in any city or their current location, they will see the business’ Twitter feeds, Facebook feeds/links and other custom links the business has added to their White Pages® listing.

-‘Shareability'-All listings on the White Pages® iPad site can be shared via SMS or email.

-Ease of use-by keeping the user interface (UI) elements off the screen, content is displayed clearly and operation simplified.

-Efficient build-The site was built using the same codebase that delivers the White Pages® smartphone (iOS and Android) and low-end experience. It is built exclusively with HTML5 and a content-rendering framework classes devices into groups and determines which experience to serve up.

-Speed of service-by balancing the interactions and responses of the site, White Pages® iPad has been optimised to deliver rapid response for every request and page serve.

-Useability—to achieve a ‘clean read’ of text-heavy content pages, the White Pages® team kept affordances (a visual clue to the function of an object) to a minimum.

-Functionality—Iterative development and designer-developer pairing allowed us to try and fail different design and implementation approaches and reach a simplified multi-gesture results page.

-Listing size variation—a three-column layout has been applied to accommodate both short listings and longer listings that need to be dynamically loaded in the background.

User Experience

The White Pages® iPad site offers the fastest White Pages® digital experience available. Its touch-screen interface and ability to hook into device capabilities such as ‘current location’ provide the user with a rewarding and rich search experience.

When a user enters a unique business name, the White Pages® iPad site takes them directly to a full-screen, mapped view with all available business details displayed together on the screen—it's one of the easiest ways to find and locate a business. Importantly, the White Pages® team endeavoured to leverage the strengths of the White Pages® brand and focus on keeping the task of searching and finding a phone number quick and simple.

Users can also swipe through pages and tap on large captions to return to the start of a listing. They also have straightforward access to recent searches via the homepage. Additionally, dynamic loading of content on larger content-heavy business listings ensures the White Pages® iPad site is extremely fast and responsive.

iPad traffic to White Pages® Mobile has increased from 10,000 visits a month in July 2010, to almost 70,000 visits a month in June 2011. (See graph)

Every time a user visits the White Pages® iPad site they will see one of 30 different background images from the White Pages® Directory Covers Program. The integration of this theme into the White Pages® iPad site reflects the relationship that White Pages® has with local Australian communities.

Project Marketing

N/A