The challenge
Due to Renfe's high profile as the company responsible for all rail transportation in Spain, it needed a website that would provide not only comprehensive information but would also interface with Renfe's legacy system for train scheduling information.
IconMedialab was selected to create a massive website of more that 2,500 html pages without the use of any content management tool or server-side technologies. This site would present all the information both in Spanish and in English.
The solution
Technology constraints made us think creatively and we created a local template system using a modular design that would allow us to make global changes to thousands of pages at at time. As an alternative to classing menu navigation, we designed a wizard tool that would allow the user to find the information using a series of questions in natural language.
Translation of the site was a major hurdle. Using an external agency we were able to translate part of the website, but an extensive amount of translation was done in-house, to help speed up the effort.
My role in the project
I took over this project as Lead Project Manager while it had been in-progress for some time. My primary responsibility was to heal a badly damaged client-provider relationship, speed up the development and translation efforts and successfully launch the website with maximum client satisfaction.
Agency: IconMedialab Spain
Launched: October 1999