EDENS

A home for community

Designing a seamless digital narrative

EDENS is more than a real estate owner, operator, and developer of a nationally leading portfolio of 125 locations. It’s a curator of people, culture, and connectivity in well-constructed, community-driven places. As the company says, their purpose is “to enrich communities through human engagement.” We were hired to help them tell not only their story, but the many human stories that shape and define their engaging locations.

Plan of ATTCK

We developed EDENS’s website around the relationship of stories and the locations in which they take place. Since this idea was already a pillar of the brand’s identity, it was an easy sell. Our strong partnership with INVNT and their unrivaled design prowess allowed for hassle-free execution.

We built a seamless data layer integration between WordPress and PR Newswire. This included an automated nightly import of content via the PR Newswire RSS feed. The result is SEO-friendly, native WordPress posts. Articles and other news are indexed by search engines and displayed as native EDENS.com content.

We also provided a customizable page-building experience using WordPress, including support for bespoke taxonomies. This gives EDENS the flexibility to present content that is finely tailored to their business goals.

The heart behind their detailed location listings and search functionality is the centralized property management service Property Capsule. We designed a suite of custom page templates that allowed our two systems to integrate seamlessly.

User experience design & strategy

EDENS had an existing website and was able to conduct a survey of their retailers to uncover pain points. The results were illuminating: The old navigation was clunky, and the properties weren’t prominent enough. It wasn’t clear that EDENS offers fantastic support for businesses that need help with their design and marketing. Users wanted to see more inspiration and examples of concepts.

Styled property search

When we redesigned the site, we featured the most inspiring properties on the homepage along with photos and story teasers. The stories focus on the artists and creators who make these locations so unique. We placed a click-down search function on every page to make it easy for users to find properties and vacancies no matter where they are in the site. For users needing more granularity, we also provided advanced options with range sliders for square footage and demographic information.

Customizable layout

EDENS’s retailer stories are full of energy and personality. That had to be reflected in the page layouts, which needed to be flexible, recreating the experience of reading a magazine article. We created a layout tool that gives EDENS the ability to be creative and present a beautiful page, whether a story has one image or ten.

Launch

The Edens.com website redesign represents a major strategic shift in the company’s messaging, and we’re honored to have been a part of the process. We’re incredibly proud of the work our teams accomplished, and we look forward to watching the company’s continued success and growth.

Site of the day 05/16/19

Special Kudos 05/14/18

Credits

Gary Gertz

Chris Oz

Karen Chow Oka Tai-Lee Dennis Plucinik

EDENS

Designing a seamless digital narrative