Behind the scenes: Building a new Fairphone website

At Fairphone, our behind-the-scenes updates are usually related to producing our phone. But this time, we’re pulling back the virtual curtains to reveal a different type of project: We’re developing a new website! Even though we’re not quite ready to launch, we knew it was time to let you in on our not-very-secret secret. We think our website and online discussion space can be even better with our community’s feedback and insights. So let me give you a peek into what we’ve been busy with behind the scenes.

Telling our story, one step at a time

Creating a new website is fun, sometimes hectic work. Our biggest challenge is that we have a lot we want to tell! Because we have so many projects running in parallel, we’re developing the website just like we’re improving phone production processes: one step at a time.

Besides having a fresh new look and ramping up for the sales of our next batch of Fairphones, our primary objective is telling our story in a more accessible way. We also want to improve our website experience for our two key types of visitors: 1) People who have never heard of Fairphone before; and 2) Our active community and Fairphone owners.

For the first group, we want to offer a clear snapshot of our entire story and goals in a single page, with options to dive deeper into specific action areas. For the second group, we wanted to provide an easy way to get the latest updates and connect with our support team, as well as engage with each other.

Our creative partners in the digital world, Booreiland. They always work with these T-shirts on.Instead of trying to get absolutely everything perfect within only one very tight timeline, we’ve decided to produce the new website in sprints, adding new pages and functionality in periods throughout the next months. This gives us more flexibility to incorporate feedback from our own team, as well as from you, our community.

We value your feedback – share ideas in the comments

When the new website goes live in a couple weeks, it will be pared down to the essentials. As we continue to develop new content and capabilities, we’d love your feedback – especially in terms of the Fairphone movement and the community discussion platform.

The Movement

What we call the Fairphone Movement in a way encompasses all the people who support Fairphone – who these people are and how they spread our story. It also means the way we visualize this on our website by showcasing this movement through different social media channels. It’s about building an online space to document all this activity. We’ll launch some fun new #wearefairphone functionality later this summer, but first we’d like your opinion on the basics:

• Which social networks do you use most often?
• Which social feeds do you want integrated into our website?
• Is there anything you’re currently missing (with Fairphone online presence)?

Creative strategy workshop. Lots of post-its.

The Discussion Platform

The Discussion Platform is a place within the Fairphone website for our awesome group of active community members to talk with each other. We currently use a Zendesk forum which we admit, unfortunately, has limited functionality. To improve the Discussion Platform, we’re considering the following providers: Vanilla Forum, phpBB, and Discourse (from the founders of StackExchange). Our interest from you is to know what kind of discussion platform you want the Fairphone online community to be.

Here’s what we’d love to know:

• What’s your opinion on the choice for forum platform provider?
• Which functionality do you think is crucial? (promoting posts, topic sections, etc.)
• Which topics are you most interested in discussing? (what’s fair, production, support, etc.)

Sneak peek. Some initial creative concepting.The website as a whole
While we’re at it, we’d also like your opinion on our website experience as a whole:

• Which features or content is essential to a future Fairphone website?
• What do you like about the current website?
• What content do you find missing on the current Fairphone website?

Tell us what you think about the above questions in the comments, or share with us in a more formal way with the embedded survey below. We’ll take your feedback into consideration as we work on our upcoming web development sprints.

Go to full survey in a new window.

One more reason to visit the new website

Well, of course I don’t dare give away too much for now, but if you’re hoping to become a future Fairphone owner, it’s worth returning here every now and then to see if our online home has a new face. And if you’ve signed up for the second-batch buyer’s list, keep your eyes glued to your inbox in the coming weeks. That’s all I’m going to say for now… Until then, share your opinion below in the discussion comments, through our survey, or in our forum.