How do you get people who’ve held on to their old phones forever to finally upgrade? That was our challenge when we launched the iPhone SE on apple.com. These folks don’t think they need the latest thing. They want lasting value. And their old, slow phone is most likely their main way of using the internet — and viewing our site.

And, oh yeah, it had to connect with that audience in 108 countries and 31 languages.

Keep it light — in every way. Our site would be lightweight, with low bandwidth requirements, to run smoothly on outdated phones. It would be focused on just the most important features, making the site shorter and much quicker to get through. It would be lighthearted and fun. And it would make it effortlessly easy to upgrade.

Convince pragmatic, price-sensitive owners of aging phones that iPhone SE offers such a performance/price combination that it’s silly to wait any longer to upgrade. And make sure the site can deliver a great mobile experience even when viewed on older hardware.

The site was designed to load instantly, scroll fluidly, and never drag. Dynamic animations throughout were optimized to be remarkably lightweight so they’re smooth even on older phones. We kept the copy concise to fit in a phone screen, to hold a non-technical audience’s attention, and to simplify translation for a global audience. And we added a few winks to make it fun to read and engage with.

The website went live during the Apple Keynote launch presentation to provide more information about the new model to prospective buyers. But the site is evergreen, staying up to support the iPhone SE throughout its lifespan.

The first generation iPhone SE was widely regarded as a big success. The new SE site blew it out of the water, generating 61% more traffic on apple.com. And based on social media, visitors loved it.

“The website animations for the new iPhone SE are insane.”

“This is the f***ing best landing page I ever experienced on mobile.”

“Hilarious” (referring to the processor headline “iPhone 11 Pro called. It wants its chip back.”)