The former website contained large amounts of content. This caused users to lose themselves in an overwhelming amount of information and resulted in Stibbe being unable to reach its target audiences, while sharing its expertise and distributing content online is of great importance for a knowledge-driven organisation such as Stibbe.

The new website aims to improve Stibbe’s brand experience, highlight the competencies of the lawyers and civil-law notaries, and provide users with structured and well-organised content. Together with Stibbe, we dove deep into strategy, design and content, to build a website that focuses on user experience, brand perception and connection with its target audiences.

Before we started conceptualising, we drew up two basic principles to base all of our future choices on: less is more and state-of-the-art.

Less is more

Even though law often involves complicated subject matter, we wanted to avoid such complexity on the website, in terms of both content and design.

State of the art

Stibbe offers high-quality legal services. We wanted to convey that by transforming the website into a state-of-the-art platform. This does not necessarily mean that we needed to play all our cards immediately. We chose to emphasise Stibbe’s expertise with strong content and a strategically drafted information architecture.

Keeping Stibbe’s wishes in mind, we worked on the information architecture, design and content. We built the website in Drupal, a scalable system with sufficient freedom and structure options. Moreover, Drupal uses a secure system for roles and rights to create, edit and publish content. It’s an ideal system for an organisation with multiple employees who work on content, you might say.

Easy browsing

To design the information architecture for the new website, we had to know more about the user. Who visits the website? What are they looking for? Those questions allowed us to map the needs of different users and integrate them into an optimal information architecture.

From our requirements analysis we deduced that not all users want to dive into the complex subject matter of corporate law or follow up on the legal developments around technological innovation. That’s why we avoided overwhelming the user with content right away. Rather, Stibbe’s home page consists of a maximum of four highlighted publications that speak to a wide audience.

But we also catered to those who do want to dive deep into legal matters. The vast amount of content that was previously offered on the website is still available. A clear taxonomy allows visitors to easily browse through their favourite subjects.

Dynamic design

Stibbe is not solely focused on traditional law. The firm also leans towards present-day themes such as digital economy issues, sustainability and technological innovation. That’s why we wanted to break with traditional UX for the new website and, in doing so, properly convey the progressive stance of the organisation.

We experimented with coloured blocks and overlapping text, without compromising on white space. This resulted in a dynamic interface that appeals to the users and encourages them to keep exploring. To facilitate their journey on the website, we included only essential navigation buttons. This makes Stibbe’s website clear and structured, with a virtually inexhaustible source of information waiting to be explored.

To improve the brand experience, we reviewed the typography, colour palette and images. The changes we made resulted in a modern look and feel on the current website. We also designed templates that Stibbe can use for future news articles, event announcements, podcasts and other content.

Reviewed content

When developing the new website, we prioritised not overwhelming the user with detailed and subject-specific content. Instead, we wanted to show only the right content to the right user. When we developed the information architecture, we took this into account and ensured that the users can quickly—and intuitively—find what they are looking for.

The content offered must also be of high quality. A content migration—the transfer of existing content to the new website—allowed Stibbe to sweep through and review the content. For pieces of content that were perfectly fine, such as news articles, we carried out an automatic migration. This migration consisted of roughly 5,000 news articles, including images and redirects.

And the cherry on top: personalised news alerts

To deliver the right content to the right user, we integrated an automation tool. The tool automatically adds recently published articles to a news alert. But since we don’t want to bury the user with content, the tool is designed to select only articles whose topics match the user’s interests. Stibbe thus provides a unique and personalised news alert for every user who wishes to receive one.

Our collaboration resulted in a contemporary and distinctive website for Stibbe. The modern look and feel fit seamlessly with the Stibbe brand and its profile as a leading law and notarial firm. Without presenting an overwhelming amount of content, we welcome the user to the website. Subsequently, they can easily find their way to the information they are looking for and, if they wish, delve into legal matters or learn more about the expertise of the various practices and lawyers. With this state-of-the-art website, Stibbe can continue to build its online presence in a sustainable way.

Stibbe's clients also reap the benefits. We are seeing a solid increase in session duration compared to the same period last year. Visitors are staying on the website a whopping 30.74% longer. Also compared to the previous quarter, we notice an increase of about 26%. Together, Stibbe and iO have succeeded in keeping the user's attention with an attractive design, relevant content and top-notch expertise.