Pilatus launches new website

"We spoke the same language right from the start and appreciated the goal-oriented collaboration at eye level. Januar understood how to convey the mix of high-end technology and our Swiss values in the design," Fabiola Felber, Online Marketing Project Manager, explains the choice of the Zurich design and digital agency. The decision to work with a small and therefore very personal agency was a conscious one on the part of the major international group and is in keeping with Pilatus' almost family-like corporate culture. It was clear from the outset that the web relaunch would bear the "Crafted in Switzerland" label, just like the aircraft.

International orientation

The new international website needed to create a strong, emotional user experience and convey the fascination of flying. With this in mind, the designers at Januar created the brand Pilatus for the digital flying space. For Emanuel Gürth, Senior Designer, the aim of developing the look and feel was to appeal to both the target group of military training aircraft and lifestyle/business customers without losing sight of the Swissness of the Pilatus brand for even a moment.

Effective imagery

A fully responsive implementation takes into account the central importance of mobile use. Contrary to the mobile-first trend, the design started with the largest desktop version in order to define an effective visual language as soon as possible and to develop a clear design concept with atmosphere, Fredy Espejo explains this conscious decision. In this case, the subsequent reduction to mobile was the leaner and more target-oriented method. The collaboration included conceptual support, the entire design process and the complete front-end programming.

Rocket Science Coding

Thanks to a large number of micro-interactions and subtle animations, Januar has created a user experience that makes aviation enthusiasts' hearts beat faster and presents the extensive content intuitively and clearly. In order to meet the high performance requirements, Januar relied on object-oriented coding (OOP) for the front-end programming, as is customary in software development. The individual website modules can be used as required and further developed individually - without any mutual dependencies. Based on the most important page types, an actual toolbox was created that makes ongoing and independent maintenance easier for the marketing team. The object-oriented method also ensures fast browser-side interpretation and compilation, saving a considerable amount of time during debugging and ongoing maintenance. In favor of a featherweight code base, the site focuses on the current browser versions, but with fallbacks or omission of critical features on outdated environments.