ourrug [r-rug] aka Russell Smith » Web Design http://ourrug.net Web Analyst for OCAD University (OCADU) and Princple / Web Designer at ourrug unltd. Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:07:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 A “Windfall” Opportunity http://ourrug.net/2009/07/a-windfall-opportunity/ http://ourrug.net/2009/07/a-windfall-opportunity/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:44:43 +0000 Russell Smith http://ourrug.net/?p=329 Windfall logo after their re-branding efforts
Windfall’s new logo after their re-branding efforts

My wife Leslie has been working with Windfall (formerly known as Windfall Clothing Service: award-winning, registered charity that receives donations of new clothing and distributes them to over 80 partner social service agencies in Toronto) for some time now. Last year i sent off my analysis based on the current state of their website. A year passed, a re-branding occurred and just like that i am now a key player in their website re-design process on a volunteer basis!!

Some of the website re-design requirements that have been suggested are as follows:

  • ease of use in updating content – currently they use Dreamweaver and static HTML files
  • ability to post images, video and various other media formats
  • ability to multi-blog i.e., different user accounts with their own voice
  • overall website design will be in-brand with the newly printed material
  • greater tie between their peripheral micro-sites
  • simplified user-centric Information Architecture (IA) / navigational system

So considering these items i’m going to call in WordPress for it’s ease of use and multi-user architecture plus the Thematic parent / child template for it’s great out-of-the-box Search Engine Optimized (SEO) attributes, smart modular templating system, various Content Management System (CMS)-like capabilities and it’s simple design aesthetic on which to build upon.

Once all is said and done and the Windfall guys are comfortable with this new way of working i’ll start to take more of a back seat / analytical stance and begin measuring their efforts utilizing the data left by their visitors. I can then recommend significant content streams and start pushing those more to the forefront, track specific goals set out by them in terms of their (not-for-profit) business objectives and clear any obstacles that may arise in the process. Along this path i am very excited to discover the organic keywords search report as well as the content report for one has no real control over this data and ultimately what their audience is truly interested in, but can harness the momentum of these results on an ongoing basis in very dynamic ways!! More on that point later…

But for now, bring on the Windfall!!

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