Year in Review 2024

Another year has come and gone—can you believe it? 2024 has been a great year and we have so much to celebrate and look back on.

As we wrap up the year and head into the holiday break, we wanted to take an opportunity to celebrate some of the team’s outstanding achievements!

Launching Our Ethical Web Collective

You may be familiar with our previous stance on ethical web design, which was codified under five core goals called the Ethical Web Design Framework. In 2024, we expanded upon our commitment by officially launching the Ethical Web Collective.

The Ethical Web Collective is a new initiative by Plank that champions the protection of the moral rights of every individual and ensures the ability to participate in every digital space. This approach uses the foundation of ethical web design to inform four principles which guide us in creating web projects: Accessibility & Inclusion, Privacy & Security, Responsible Development, and Environmental Impact.

Our collective not only reflects Plank’s commitment, but also encourages other agencies to consider how they create digital projects and participate in online spaces. You can learn more about our principles here.

Sharing Our Storytelling Approach

Storytelling is something we value greatly here at Plank. This year, we shined a light on our process and shared more about how this digital practice can enhance your web project.

While storytelling is an important component of any web project, the combination of scrolling and interactivity creates an opportunity to invest in new digital possibilities. It heavily emphasizes the user experience and visuals through an interactive exploration of web elements.

We highlighted some of the storytelling work we’re most proud of, including From Vimy to Juno, Plank’s Annual Impact Report, the Ethical Web Collective, Plank’s 2023 Year in Review, Plank’s 25th Anniversary, and Plank’s Scrapbook.

Working With Incredible Organizations

In 2024, we are proud to have worked on some awesome projects.

We had the opportunity to work with Artificial Intelligence by building a custom translation tool for our existing client, The Canadian Encyclopedia. The tool expands their language accessibility beyond their current bilingual offering, by performing on-demand translations through existing AI tools.

We were able to design and develop a scalable and flexible website for Futurpreneur to support their continuous growth across Canada. The new website features an updated user experience for increased lead generation and a greater focus on entrepreneurial stories and indispensable resources.

The launch of our Design Standards Platform was also a great source of pride this year. We have been involved in a series of website projects for global technology companies that maintain architectural design standards and guidelines for physical spaces, such as stores and office layouts. With a need for a more intuitive and flexible way to share and keep track of their unique set of standards, we provided for them a digital ecosystem.

Our work with Claremont Graduate University (CGU) highlighted key areas of improvement including site navigation, program index and respective pages, and their admissions section. We were able to provide localized improvements to their current website based on user interviews and the implementation of our UX expertise.

Exploring New Marketing Avenues

In 2024, we put a heavy emphasis on experimentation. We wanted to find new opportunities to reach our audience and highlight our work in fresh ways.

First on the list? Reviving our newsletter. We decided to prioritize the connection between Plank and our email list, by sending out quarterly newsletters that update on our recent work, team updates, and new opportunities to collaborate with us on exciting web projects.

We also established a presence on LinkedIn Newsletters with our arts & culture-focused publication, “Just The Ticket”. The in-app feature has allowed us the opportunity to connect with our audience and share our expertise through monthly articles.

Newsletters aren’t the only way we have reached out to our audience. We also have recently invested in hosting webinars to share our insights and expertise on specific topics relative to our industry. Our first webinar, “The Power of Impact Storytelling for B Corps” discussed how a storytelling approach to web design can be applied to B Corps to elevate their Impact Reports.

We’ve also invested time and resources into Plank’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Working with our Content Strategist, Stephanie Beasse, our Strategy team was able to use analytics and keyword research to optimize our blog. We updated previous blog posts to better reflect our audience as well as ensured that all current and future blog posts are properly optimized.

Attending Exciting and Inspiring Events

From AIA Conference to Capacity Interactive’s Boot Camp, it was an incredible year for in-person events. Additionally, we are proud to have sponsored a number of the events we attended, including Laracon EU and Boot Camp.

2024 also marked yet another year of our beloved Plank Appreciation Week (PAW)! PAW offers the team the opportunity to meet in-person at our Montreal office for team bonding and professional development. Though we have invested the past few years into creating an efficient and collaborative remote-first work policy, we always love to see faces in our office for our annual meet-up!

Appreciating Our Partners—This Year and Every Year

As we look back at 2024, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge and appreciate the support of our partners. We rely on external experts to extend our capabilities and understanding, bringing them into our process and working with them directly to deliver our best work.

We want to thank Reenhanced, Capacity Interactive, and MagneticsOps for their continued support and reinforcement of our skills. We are constantly aiming to grow and evolve as an agency, in order to adapt to new systems and technologies, and our great partners allow us to do this.

As we head into 2025, we strive to continue looking forward to the future while harnessing and honing our skills and focusing on the elements that make us proud to do the work we do at Plank. From everyone on the team, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Featured image designed in part by Freepik