Skyscanner: unlocking the full power of WordPress

2. Modernising the Skyscanner blog

The Skyscanner blog, a network of almost 50 sites, needed a re-design to modernise the site, align with the brand’s corporate identity, and unlock the power of WordPress core functionality.

The existing theme was basic; Skyscanner’s editorial content had not had a theme update since its original installation, and lacked the ability to showcase Skyscanner’s brand effectively. The platform was also unmaintained, with broken features and a reliance on manual production for the editorial team.

As well as addressing the technical and backend blockers to increase CMS stability, the Skyscanner team were keen to embrace WordPress’ full power to communicate the brand’s value proposition to users in a compelling way. Behind this was an ambition to grow users’ brand affinity and streamline content workflows, including enabling new design templates for future blog articles.

Key deliverables included:

• Updating the theme with new brand guidelines
• Landing page hero header
• Article header
• Article card
• Curated archives
• Hub tiles
• Patterns

4. Agile collaboration in action

Given the tight turnaround times, our team knew that taking an Agile approach and working hand-in-hand with Skyscanner’s content team would be key to ensuring momentum and success.

Through coordinated sprint planning, design reviews, and team feedback sessions, as well as the HM’s teams’ knowledge in WordPress, Skyscanner Principal Content Strategist Noelia Guinion felt confident in the project’s delivery despite its complexity and tight timelines.

“The agile approach and the guidance of the team Scrum Master made this complex project work effectively and smoothly, with steady progress, firm prioritisation and a genuine team spirit that made the project enjoyable despite the challenges. I believe the team members all felt valuable, and were comfortable in raising any issues and give feedback to improve anything needing an extra pair of eyes.”

– Noelia Guinon, Principal Content Strategist, Skyscanner

5. Effective content production and a brand’s new lease of life

Thanks to the joint efforts of the Human Made and Skyscanner teams, both projects were brought to a successful launch with some impressive results.

• More effective content production with new components and patterns.

• Consistency throughout all editorial content and strict adherence to Skyscanner’s brand guidelines.

• Raised the bar for content internally, showcasing what good content can do for the brand.

Human Made went beyond the project’s original scope to support the Skyscanner content team to ensure all deliverables were used effectively. Since the completion of both reskin and Exceptional ALIEN projects, our shared Slack channel has remained open, and we’ll be working together on continuous improvement tasks in a separate future project.