T.Y. Lin International: One Global Vision

Posted in Work

TYLin_Desktop2T.Y. Lin International Group's projects are big. Really big. Like bridges, airports, and highways big. And the size of the projects is not measured just in simple scale, but of influence on the world's infrastructure. At last, their web presence befits their impact as one of the world's pre-eminent engineering services firms with the new T.Y. Lin International Group website.

The firm's namesake T.Y. Lin pioneered some of the concrete techniques that have enabled giant infrastructure projects around the globe. Starting with him in the 50's, and then carried on in recent decades by today's far-reaching experts, the company's expanded steadily into a worldwide firm with a strong presence in both Asia and the U.S.. Their work is used every day by tens of millions of people. Notably, they are the firm behind the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Their site is the first time their expanded company has been unified behind their one vision promise in one all-encompassing space. It's a perfect example of how creating a company website is so often an act of defining the company itself.

Our role encompassed all aspects of strategy, design, and technology applied to a long list of site features and benefits:

General Statistics: 156 projects; seven market sectors (with 45 project types); 11 services; two regions; 53 offices.

Language: Site is in English and Chinese (which can be accessed at all times at the upper right corner of the page).

*Home page:* provides a dynamic gallery of "featured" projects (from diverse market sectors and regions). These projects change positions with every new visit or refresh of the site, so you'll never see the same pictures displayed in the same spot. When you mouse over, a “hover” state displays the project and location; you can click directly to go to that project. The homepage is fully customizable to feature any project on the site.

*Market Sectors & Services:* This provides an overview of the lines of business, including what they do, their expertise, and key clients. It also showcases featured projects in an image gallery at the top. You can use the arrow button to scroll to the right to view more. To view projects specific to that market sector, you can click on any of the links to the right (view all or by project type). Also on the left, you can find the latest news specific to that market.

*Projects:* This is the heart of the website. The projects area provides a flexible and comprehensive tour of the T.Y. Lin International Group portfolio, with robust filtering capabilities. All featured projects appear when you first land, and the user can select either "by Market Sector," "by Service," or "by Region" to search accordingly, depending on their interests and intent.

*Regions:* This area provides a description of the region--Americas or Asia Pacific--calling out featured projects in the gallery (which can be customized and changed), and listing all projects based in that region (with thumbnails). It also features an expandable drawer, listing all of the offices and contacts, should a visitor want to get in touch directly with a particular office.

*About Us: *This section includes the history, mission, leadership, and people of T.Y. Lin International Group. There is a Careers-specific page with employee spotlights and a link to current openings. This section also includes a news section featuring company news, press releases, social media links, RSS feed, and more.

*Contact Us:* Provides a robust and user-friendly way to navigate and view offices by region. By clicking on "Contact this Office", a modal window opens prompting a user to type in their message to send to that particular office.

Project Tours: Custom “tours” of the website can be set up by staff for prospective clients. This is a password-protected feature which is accessible at the upper right corner of the page.

Content Management Systems (CMS): The CMS is extremely robust and extensible and is the primary engine behind the website. Not only can administrators readily add as many projects and people as they’d like, but they can add additional services and market sectors, as the focus of the company evolves. Layered on top of it is a TMS (Translation Management System) that facilitates easy entry/edit of both English and Chinese.

It's a significant launch for a significant company. And just as T.Y. Lin International's projects frequently garner awards, we think their website will earn awards and attention within the AED (Architecture, Engineering, Design) industry.

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