Thungela Corporate Website Case Study
Project overview
In 2024, Breeze Website Designers (BWD) partnered with Thungela to design, develop, and launch their new corporate website, www.thungela.com, on Drupal. The project’s vision was to create a secure, modern, and investor-focused digital platform that reflects Thungela’s corporate values, improves communication with stakeholders, and ensures long-term scalability. The site is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing enterprise-grade reliability, security, and performance.
Website design UX/UI
- Stakeholder-Centered Design: Conducted discovery workshops with Investor Relations, Communications, and HR teams to align on business goals and audience needs.
- Information Architecture: Structured navigation to serve key audiences—investors, regulators, media, employees, and community partners.
- UX Wireframes & Prototypes: Designed in Figma with a mobile-first approach and accessibility in line with WCAG 2.1.
- UI Design System: Developed a corporate digital style guide with Thungela’s brand colors, typography, and visual hierarchy.
- Outcome: A professional, intuitive interface that strengthens brand perception and ensures consistent engagement across devices.
Development
- CMS Platform: Built on Drupal 10 for enterprise flexibility, security, and multilingual readiness.
- Custom Features:
- Investor relations modules (share price integration, results, presentations).
- Media center with news releases and multimedia downloads.
- ESG reporting sections with interactive data visualizations.
- Performance Enhancements: AWS CloudFront CDN, caching, and code optimization for speed.
- Outcome: A future-ready website that balances functionality with scalability.
Hosting & support (AWS)
- Hosting Setup: Deployed on AWS with EC2, RDS, and S3 storage for high availability and redundancy.
- Scalability: Auto-scaling groups to handle spikes in investor traffic (e.g., results announcements).
- Monitoring & Alerts: CloudWatch and uptime monitoring integrated for proactive issue resolution.
- Backups & Recovery: Automated daily backups to S3 with disaster recovery protocols.
- Outcome: Enterprise-level stability with seamless handling of high-traffic events.
Maintenance
- Core & Module Updates: Monthly Drupal updates to maintain stability and security.
- Enhancement Requests: Time-based retainer for iterative improvements and new features.
- Content Updates: Assisted communications team with reports, statements, and media uploads.
- Outcome: A continuously optimized website that evolves with business needs.
Project manager
- Delivery Methodology: Agile-lite with phased delivery—Discovery, UX, UI, Alpha, Beta, Launch.
- Collaboration Tools: Jira and Trello for sprint planning and progress tracking.
- Communication: Weekly updates with Thungela’s internal project leads to ensure transparency and alignment.
- Outcome: On-time delivery of a high-stakes project within scope and budget.
SEO (Search engine optimization)
Technical SEO:
- SEO-friendly URLs, XML sitemaps, structured data markup.
- Hreflang implementation for multilingual readiness.
- On-Page SEO: Keyword-optimized templates for investor relations, sustainability, and careers pages.
- Performance SEO: Optimized page load speeds (<2.5 seconds) aligned with Google Core Web Vitals.
- Analytics: Integrated Google Analytics 4 and Search Console for tracking visibility and engagement.
- Outcome: Enhanced organic visibility for investor-focused queries and sustainability topics.
Cybersecurity
- AWS Security: Leveraged AWS Shield, WAF, and IAM roles for infrastructure protection.
- Application Security: Sucuri WAF layered on Drupal to mitigate DDoS and injection attacks.
- Testing & Audits: Quarterly penetration testing and patch management aligned with enterprise IT policies.
- Admin Access Controls: Role-based permissions and MFA for backend users.
- Outcome: Zero critical vulnerabilities post-launch and strong compliance with cybersecurity standards.
Results
- Brand Presence: A credible and polished platform aligned with Thungela’s corporate identity.
- Investor Engagement: Faster access to results, share price data, and ESG information.
- Performance: Improved load times and resilience during peak traffic periods.
- SEO Impact: Higher organic visibility and search ranking for key investor and sustainability terms.
- Security: Enterprise-level protections with layered AWS and application-level defenses.
- Scalability: Built on AWS and Drupal to support Thungela’s future growth and communications strategy.