As early as 2013, punkt.de carried out a comprehensive website relaunch for the Westfalen Group. As the collaboration continued in 2016, the focus was on implementing the new corporate design, improving performance and usability, and—in particular—optimizing the website for mobile devices. The result impresses not only with its appealing design and high level of user-friendliness, but also with its very fast loading times.
The Initial Situation
Gases, energy supply, and gas stations are the main business areas of the Westfalen Group, headquartered in Münster, Westphalia. For the relaunch that punkt.de carried out for the family-owned company in 2013, the focus was on clearly presenting the extensive product range and optimizing the search function. Since nearly 30 percent of users now access the website via mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, the website also needed to be optimized for mobile use. In addition, the Westfalen Group commissioned punkt.de to significantly improve performance and implement a layout that complies with the new corporate design guidelines.
The Challenge
An extensive product range also means large amounts of data that previously had to be preloaded. In addition to the product and safety data sheets available for download on the website, this particularly affected the information stored in the TYPO3 database table, which is used to display various properties of gases in a context-sensitive manner. Added to this were outdated servers and an outdated CMS. To improve performance, it was therefore necessary to update both software and hardware. Mobile optimization in the new layout also presented several challenges due to the many large images, the product databases, and our client’s specific requirements. “Challenges that punkt.de mastered with flying colors,” said Katharina Kämper, Project Manager for Internet and Social Media at the Westfalen Group.
We've been working with punkt.de for years and are consistently impressed by how professionally and with great dedication the team approaches new projects. punkt.de doesn't just execute—they always contribute their own ideas.
Katharina Kämper,
Internet and Social Media Project Manager
The Solution
To improve performance, punkt.de not only worked closely with the provider of the new, faster servers but, most importantly, updated the CMS from TYPO3 6.2 to TYPO3 7.6 and, as part of this process, began using the faster PHP 7. In addition, caching was significantly improved using Redis Cache. This key-value database allows data to be stored under specific keys and retrieved at incredible speeds, which significantly reduces the website’s load time.
The open-source Bootstrap framework was used to create a layout that is aligned with the corporate design and optimized for mobile devices; this framework defines standards for structuring source code and includes an adaptive grid system for responsive design. The layout, developed by the Westfalen Group’s agency, engages visitors even more effectively thanks to the new arrangement of tabs, the thematically organized subpages, and the context-sensitive sidebar—which displays relevant content and downloads for each subpage— —both on desktops and on smartphones or tablets.
In addition, the website stands out with several new features, such as automatic route calculation: Thanks to the Google Maps integration, users can navigate directly to the nearest gas station. “This is a major advantage for individual customers who visit our site on a mobile device,” explains Katharina Kämper. Overall, the project manager is very pleased with the result.
