SSW’s homepage receives a 2026 facelift!

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We launched a new homepage for ssw.com.au this week. It’s an event that happens rarely. Probably in 30 years, there have been 5 of these refreshes, and that is despite often a dozen changes a day to our large website.

It’s been a few years in the making; every time we made a start on it, we got a new client project. There’s an old joke about builders never finishing their own houses… the same is true of software companies and their websites. I was proud of our old website, but it was starting to show its age, and it didn’t have a beautiful customer journey as you scroll down the page. The new homepage still has broadly the same content (services, banners, awards, events, office details, and client logos); however, there are less words, but the page is longer.

It’s still built with TinaCMS, but it’s more on target to showcase our consulting and easier to comprehend. No more large walls of text.

The trust journey as a diagram
Figure: The SSW customer journey from start to finish

Under the covers

The site is fast, as it uses static site technology and is built in React on TinaCMS. The biggest change is it’s now using a block-based editing schema to promote reusability and flexibility of component code. This also means our non-technical team can make easy edits and build new webpages. A dream come true for the marketing team.

You can read more about this on TinaCMS documentation | Blocks

Figure: There are 11 blocks on the SSW homepage (using TinaCMS)

The Journey

We wanted visitors to follow a deliberate journey as they moved down the page, with each section answering the next question in their mind:

  • What should I do next?
  • What does SSW do?
  • Why should I trust them?
  • Have they delivered this before?
  • Who will I be working with?

The new design replaces the old homepage, which had some ‘walls of text’, with a clearer hierarchy, stronger typography and an obvious next step, or, as our marketers like to call it, a ‘call to action’. Instead of presenting everything at once, the page introduces SSW’s experience, delivery statistics (and they’re real!), case studies, testimonials and the software developers who deliver the magic.

Comparing length of the old and the new site

The length of the website has changed a lot, but the text count remains about same (145 fewer words).

Figure: The old main page on the left and the new version on the right (dark mode)

The new homepage also supports both light and dark modes, automatically reflecting your device or browser preference:

Figure: New site – Do you prefer dark mode (left) or light mode (right)

Your Feedback

This means visitors no longer need to piece the SSW story together for themselves.

Now that you’ve seen the comparison, I’d love to know what you think:

  • Is the new homepage clearer than the old design?
  • Which mode do you prefer: light or dark?
  • Did the homepage display the mode you expected based on your device or browser settings?

If you haven’t already, take a look at the old homepage and compare it with the new SSW homepage.