Puritas website: building a clearer, smarter and future-ready digital platform

A new website should never begin with the question: What should it look like?

The better questions are: Who needs to use it? What are they trying to understand? What questions are they asking? And what does the organisation need the website to achieve?

Those questions were central to The Idea Works’ development of the new Puritas website.

Puritas provides specialist fund administration, transfer agency, client data and compliance technology. Its audiences are knowledgeable, its products are sophisticated and the operational challenges it addresses can be complex. Our job was therefore not simply to redesign an existing website. It was to make that complexity easier to navigate, understand and act upon.

Why did Puritas need a new website?

The previous Puritas website had served the business for more than a decade, but its underlying technology was increasingly limiting what could be achieved.

The platform had become difficult to update safely, creating growing technical, security and compatibility concerns. It also lacked the flexibility required for a modern content programme incorporating insights, case studies and regularly changing information.

At the same time, the way prospective clients research technology providers is changing.

Normal marketing channels remain important, but buyers increasingly use AI-powered search and answer engines to research problems, compare solutions and identify potential suppliers.

That meant the new website had to be technically stronger and structurally clearer.

Website strategy starts with the questions clients ask

One of the most important decisions was to organise content around client problems rather than expecting visitors to begin with product names.

Fund administrators and compliance professionals arrive with practical questions.

How can we reduce manual fund administration? How can we manage increasingly complex compliance requirements? How do we consolidate fragmented client information? Can we migrate away from a legacy platform without unnecessary operational disruption?

The new site creates direct routes into those issues before connecting users with Puritas products, client results and relevant expertise.

Mike Feighan, Operations Director and Co-founder of Puritas, explains:

“We wanted the new website to answer the questions clients actually ask us. Working with The Idea Works helped us move from simply describing functionality to explaining the problems we solve and the evidence behind those solutions. That makes the site more useful for clients and gives us a much stronger foundation for everything we want to do next.”

 

Creating a better Puritas website user experience

Good UX is particularly important when the subject matter is complex.

Our approach was to establish clear journeys around who Puritas helps, what Puritas solves, its technology platform, client results and specialist insight.

Users can therefore start from the point most relevant to them.

A compliance professional does not have to take the same route as a fund operations director. Someone researching legacy migration can move directly into that problem, understand Puritas’ approach and then examine relevant products and supporting evidence.

The objective is straightforward: reduce friction between the question and the answer.

Designing a professional technology brand with clarity

Creative direction for the project was overseen by Martyn Aubert, Creative Director at The Idea Works.

The aim was not to reinvent Puritas for the sake of change. It was to create a more contemporary, confident and structured expression of the existing business.

Typography, page hierarchy, colour, imagery and interface components were developed to help users process detailed information without making the experience feel dense or overly technical.

Good website design has a practical purpose. It creates hierarchy, draws attention to what matters and helps an organisation communicate more clearly.

Building for SEO, AI search and future content

Search optimisation was considered as part of the structure and content from the outset rather than being applied after the site had been completed.

Clear headings, explicit answers, structured content and connected subject areas help conventional search engines understand a website. Increasingly, the same principles also help AI-based systems interpret and retrieve information accurately.

The site also provides Puritas with a dynamic Insights and Results platform for publishing expertise, news and case studies.

There are no guarantees around AI visibility or search rankings. What organisations can control is the quality, clarity and structure of the information they publish.

A structured website development process

The technical build was led by Bryden Devine, working with The Idea Works web & SEO team, translating the agreed user experience and Martyn’s creative direction into a responsive, flexible platform.

Custom Gutenberg components provide a modular content system, allowing Puritas to develop the site without being constrained by a fixed template.

For me, managing the project was about maintaining that connection between commercial objective, content, creative and technology.

“The strongest website projects are the ones where every decision has a reason behind it. With Puritas, we were dealing with complex products, sophisticated audiences and a changing search environment. Our role was to keep those requirements connected throughout the project, so UX, content, design and development were all working towards the same objective rather than being treated as separate disciplines.”

— Richard Lumborg, Managing Director, The Idea Works

Why choose The Idea Works for website and branding projects?

The new Puritas website demonstrates why we believe website projects work best when strategy, branding, content, UX, design and development are considered together.

A website is one of the most visible expressions of a brand, but its value comes from more than appearance. It should explain the organisation clearly, make journeys easier, support discovery, build confidence and provide a platform for future communication.

At The Idea Works, we bring those disciplines together through a structured process, from initial research and planning through creative development, technical build, launch and ongoing support.

The objective is not simply to create something new.

It is to create something that works.

To discuss a new website, branding project or wider digital requirement, contact Richard Lumborg, Managing Director, on +44 (0) 1534 755405 or email richard@theideaworks.com.