Kanban's "Learn & Explore" Redesign for Nikon Is Webby Award Honoree

NEW YORK, July 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kanban, which engineers inspiring, content-centric interactions on web, mobile devices, and emerging technology platforms for real-time marketers, successfully partnered with Nikon Inc. and Sposto Interactive on a revolutionary content-rich, immersive and inspiring experience for consumers. The resulting interface and supporting technology is a best-in-class example of a brand using content as a core marketing discipline to drive awareness and purchase intent, and has now been named an honoree in the Web: Best Practices category for the 17^th Annual Webby Awards.

Read our case study: How Nikon Supercharged Content Marketing

The initiative required the multi-disciplinary team to reimagine the experience of interacting with immensely visual, rich, and inspiring images, videos and articles.  "Nikon strongly believes that education and inspiration through content will grow both brand loyalty and sales of Nikon's product portfolio," said Cindy Jeffus, Nikon's Manager of Internet Operations. "We heard from the consumer that findability, navigation and search were very important, so we focused on those elements as part of a large-scale redesign.  I'm delighted with the results."

The experience, labeled Learn & Explore, provides existing and potential customers with a modern and engaging set of interactions surfacing branded editorial content written exclusively by Nikon and associated world-class photographers.  Some highlights of the new experience are:

• Immersive and Intuitive Navigation and Filtering
• On-brand Experience
• Localization
• Flexible Content & Metadata Model 
• Content and Media Syndication
• Editorial-inspired Content Authoring
• Best-of-Breed Open Source Technology (Apache Solr for faceted navigation) Coupled with Enterprise Content Management (HP/Autonomy TeamSite)

A large part of the effort included the re-architecture of the existing content management system to support more robust content, rich and flexible layouts, as well significant performance improvements.  "Dealing with high resolution images and video, coupled with consumer expectations for speed and a rich interface added to the complexity.  We implemented some advanced caching techniques, spent time optimizing data queries, and streamlined thousands of lines of javascript. The work resulted in a content rich educational tool that is also fun to use," explained Kanban's CEO Josh Manton.

About Kanban
Founded in 2006, Kanban Solutions LLC, provides software engineering, and application development services to global brands across a number of industries; including consumer electronics, retail, financial services, publishing, manufacturing, and media. Based in New York City, Kanban has developed solutions for such notable brands as Nikon, NBC Universal and New York University. Kanban specializes in complex web applications that leverage customer experience management, content and commerce technologies and systems, rely on rich interfaces, and deliver business results. Through a unique and highly effective delivery methodology, Kanban's clients are more agile and responsive, enabling marketing innovation on a 24x7 real-time basis. 

CONTACT: Philip Wisniewski, +1-646-837-5664

SOURCE Kanban