Healthcare
Acquia
Drupal
Content Systems
Experience Design

Problem

No matter what language we speak or what country we call home, we are all united in our quest for better health. So when WW sought to internationalize WeightWatchers.com and share a transformative digital experience across the globe, they turned to their trusted partner, Phase2. Internationalizing WeightWatchers.com was a highly complex undertaking, but it wasn’t the only challenge facing the team. With monthly visitors exceeding 10 million and an integrated marketing campaign set to kick off in conjunction with a major product announcement, critical business objectives hinged on the site’s successful launch. Speed to market was a top priority. A lot needed to happen and it needed to happen quickly.

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Context

WW gives you tools to make weight loss simple. The easy-to-use app puts it all in the palm of your hand: quick food and activity tracking, 24/7 coach chat, goal-setting, 12,000+ recipes, a barcode scanner, a supportive network of members, and more.

Ranked the #1 best diet for weight loss 12 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report, WeightWatchers is easy to follow, making it easier to find success. Lose weight and keep it off with the science, support, simplicity, and sustainability of the award-winning program.

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Our approach

Engaging in 11 Languages

When internationalizing digital platforms, relevance is key. WeightWatchers.com needed an overhaul of its localization infrastructure in order to serve seamlessly translated, relevant content to users around the world. Global editorial teams needed the freedom to adjust content with confidence.

To meet these needs for personalization, language translation, and brand protection, Phase2 developed a platform with Acquia and Drupal at its heart. The new system automatically chooses a region and language based on location and also allows users to adjust their selections.

Phase2 implemented this approach with a standardized design system that handles RTL (right to left) as well as Cyrillic languages. Customers are now presented with the correct theme and dynamically generated pricing information based on their geographic location. Phase2 also developed a multilingual editorial experience with multilingual tutorials so editors could get help in their native languages.

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The Need for Speed

Working in close collaboration with our partners at WW, Phase2 put together an aggressive sprint-based plan backed by an Agile approach and test-driven development (TDD). Before each two-week sprint, our teams met to prioritize tasks and features for the upcoming development push. This constant revisiting of progress and goals kept us honed in on delivering the most impactful solution for launch.

example of Weight Watchers app screens

Outcome

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We can really tell who our partners are during the hour of need, and your team certainly came through for us. It is a spectacular day when all of our markets can respond quickly, and make real-time content changes. You all poured so much of yourselves into this—and I am just truly grateful!
SHIREN VIJIASINGAM | VP OF PRODUCT, WW

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Personalization Beyond Translation

Accurate language and currency translation is critical for internationalization—but to drive conversions, even more personalization is beneficial. WW’s newly internationalized platform attracts, engages, and retains members with dynamic pricing widgets, enhanced Meeting Finder interfaces, revenue generating ads, and dynamic optimization of the experience based on real-time results.

The newly internationalized platform enabled a more streamlined content publishing system while ensuring that WW customers received culturally relevant content in a consistently branded interface.

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