Arcata Economic Development Corporation

A Client Focused CMS

AEDC's old site was built on a stock version of the Drupal development framework, but it had become unruly and problematic when trying to make even the simplest changes to their content owing to the poor UI on the backend. There were so many issues the site ultimately became a sore point for the organization as the staff turned their focus towards higher value work. When we were brought in to help, we knew that we could go in and fix the old site but it would be akin to patching holes in a sponge. We proposed switching over to our CMS, and the results speak for themselves. The site no longer fights AEDC's staff, but helps them distribute important financial advice and information to the local community and entire region. 

At EvenVision, we pride ourselves on the amount of work we've put into developing a Content Management System that features a clean & friendly UI for the backend. We've spent countless hours refining the system so that while it's built on top of the same Drupal framework that the old AEDC site was, our clients often comment "wow, this is great... it's clean... and straight forward, I can actually do something with this..." when they see how our CMS functions compared to stock Drupal that most developers leave their clients with. Our CMS has been refined by cutting away the fat, leaving just the essential elements required for a client to quickly achieve their goals. 

Our clients often comment  "wow, this is great... it's clean... straight forward, I can actually do something with this..."

Providing Valuable Information

AEDC's old site was struggling to provide information to visitors for three primary reasons:

1. The site was difficult for the staff to use and maintain (resolved in part with a new website CMS).
2. The site's esthetic was dated and struggling. 
3. Parts of the website had not been properly maintained with obtrusive error messages appearing throughout the site. 

Loud error messages on a site will sow seeds of doubt with visitors about the trustworthiness of the organization. Even more than the error messages, the site's homepage struggled to present a cohesive message with clear information in a way that is accessible, beautiful and functional. 

We resolved these issues by:

1. Establishing a Core Message
2. Focusing and Refining the Site's Value
3. Removing the Need for Entering Content Multiple Times
4. Updating the technology to resolve errors messages and warnings

1 - Establishing a Core Message

AEDC's old site struggled to provide a clear message to visitors which was caused by a lack of focus on the homepage. Sitting down with Susan we focused on establishing the primary goal of the homepage and the core information that needed to be distributed throughout the site. We learned that visitors arriving at the site should be able to accomplish the following quickly and with ease:

Acquire information:

• Learn about what AEDC does
• Learn about AEDC's past success 
• Learn about AEDC's communities values
• See AEDC's geographic scope

Take Action:

• Apply for loans
• Contact AEDC

Get Involved:

• See upcoming community events 

They needed their website homepage to be a hub of useful community opportunities for visitors to grasp hold of.

It's important to note that this wasn't instantaneous, we used a process to develop a homepage that really sung the right tune. Throughout the project with AEDC, we created numerous iterations before we finally nailed the right image and right components for AEDC, but the time and effort required was well worth it. Great things aren't built overnight, and at EvenVision we know and embrace this because we desire to create great things that help people. 

"Great things aren't built overnight, and at EvenVision we know and embrace this because we desire to create great things that help people."

2 - Focusing & Refining the Site's Value:

What we did to clean up and focus the homepage and whole website into a hub of useful and accessible community information.

1. Clean up and develop clear sections for key information that would isolate the information into quickly digestible chunks

2. Present a clear Call to Action: "We finance opportunity 'apply here.'"

3. Couple the Call to Action with a Feature Image that presents not only an engaging image but tells the right message and helps facilitate action.

4. Develop an dynamic display for core information featuring "business lending, in the community, success stories" that utilized Ajax techniques to maximize interaction and help remove clutter around the content. 

5. Present the interactive Geographic Scope to quickly provide visitors with valuable information in an engaging method. 

6. Provide a dedicated section for Upcoming Events that automatically displays the upcoming events and removes past events to encourage engagement.  

7. Utilize high quality Fonts to present information with distraction.

8. Focusing the main navigation menu from 9 pathways to 4. 

Now when you visit the site, you're presented with a much more engaging content that is clear and focused into straightforward sections for optimum clarity. This not only helped clean up their professional image but refocused their site to being a useful tool for the community. 

3 - Removing the Need for Entering Content Multiple Times

The Problem: Often a website's content develops inconsistencies because the same information is entered on their site multiple times in different areas. When we reviewed AEDC's website needs and desires we knew that we needed to remove the need for all this management overhead, otherwise we risked creating a website that perpetuated their current issues of being cumbersome and unruly to edit and having their professional image fall behind. 

Our Solution: Automatically pull controlled content from their original location and display it, or a select details, on any other page required. This means that their homepage does not become a headache to maintain and becomes a means of distributing relevant information that funnels people to the right locations. 

For Example: The dynamic display of core information features a section on Success Stories, but instead of the staff having to enter the success stories on the pathway page, the success story profile and the homepage (or a total of 3 different times in 3 different places), they are able to enter the content once under the profile. From here, key details and summaries can be automatically pulled to the homepage, and the success stories pathway page. See graphics below:

 Example 1: Enter content in each place it needs to appear.

Notice that to create one single success story and have it appear in all of the different locations, would require three different entries. This can breed mistakes and discrepancies in the information. Not to mention being time consuming for a staff member to enter. 

 Example 2: Enter content once & let the website do the rest.

By automatically pulling information from the Success story, it can be entered once on the profile page, and then have it's key information and summaries of the details simply appear in the various other places that it needs to appear. This removes the issues with entering the content manually in different locations on the site, and saves time and energy for the staff maintaining and updating the site.