Richardson Sheffield

Founded in Sheffield in 1839, Richardson Sheffield is one of the oldest surviving cutlery manufacturing companies. It is famous the world over for its brands such as laser, balance, evolution, and gripi to name but a few.

When it came to developing the website, Label worked closely with Richardson's existing designers to maintain the high standard of promotional materials online.

A Flash of inspiration
The decision to develop the site using Macromedia Flash ( see opposite panel ) allowed for subtle use of animation and sound, and intricate interactivity. This approach reflected the sophistication of both Richardson Sheffield's products and the target market.

Getting around
As with any online presence, the navigation system is key to the success of the website. The navigation was designed to allow users to jump from one section of the site to another in as few clicks as possible - it also gives the visitor constant feedback of where they are within the structure of the site.

Killing time
Another problem with large websites is loading times. When creating sites with Flash this issue is even more paramount, as the animation and sound information have to be downloaded, as well as text and images. To minimise this problem, assets are downloaded when needed - with the bare minimum of information loading before the main navigation can be used. The end result is a site that loads extremely quickly on a Broadband connection, but also works for users with a modem.

Visitor Numbers
At the time of writing the Richardson Sheffield website is proving very popular. The site had over 10,000 page impressions during December 2003, and this number is rising rapidly. The site's ranking on the search engine Google is also very favourable.

Design Week Awards 2004
"Clean, efficient and elegant" was how the publication described the Richardson Sheffield site at the Design Week awards – the site won the Information category of the Interactive Media section.