NURFC's homepage in 2007

We’ve been working with the Freedom Center since 2006 and got a chance to redesign their website in 2007. It was a huge undertaking, a complete rethinking of the site’s purpose, architecture, and design.

Over time the homepage was updated to meet the changing needs of the organization. Recently we were tasked with addressing an upcoming shift in the Freedom Center’s online communications goals and didn’t feel the existing layout could accommodate that without pushing other important information into the background.

The center plans on highlighting the work they do combating modern slavery and want the website’s blog to be the primary avenue for this push. That meant getting articles on the homepage without overwhelming visitors with walls of text. We accomplished this goal by bringing a list of recent blog articles to the homepage and also dedicating a large navigation element to the Slavery Today section of the website.

The Freedom Center's new look

The other elements of the homepage each provide quick access to the site’s more popular sections, we also brought a list of upcoming events in to help balance out the blog headlines.

One of the biggest challenges we faced during our initial design was the lack of great photography. The building and the exhibits are truly stunning but we struggled to get that across. Cincinnati architecture photographer Miles Wolf has taken some amazing interior and exterior shots since our first go around and we weren’t going to miss the chance to incorporate them into the new site (the home page greets visitors with one of 6 randomly chosen images and each of the main sections also sports a large photograph).

Fortunately, due to the modular approach we took to our rebuild of the site in 2007, the process of applying the design to the site went very quickly. With the exception of the home page, which was built from scratch, we were able to apply the new design across the whole site in just a few hours work.

Visit the site and let us know what you think.

AccelAdvisors.com viewed in FireFox

We originally built (but didn’t design) Accel Advisors’ website way back in 2006 and recently tweaked the layout and color scheme a bit and also updated the code to take advantage of some of the new css3 properties like rounded-corners and drop-shadows* (translation: the site downloads a bit faster and is easier to maintain).

Visit AccelAdvisors.com

*These elements don’t display in the current versions of Internet Explorer but do in all modern browsers and will in IE9, which Microsoft is releasing later this year.

One of the biggest changes was width. Since we first designed the site the average user’s screen size has increased from 800×600 to 1024×768. This gives us a lot more room and the ability to display things across the horizontal without it looking too cluttered.

We also streamlined the sign-in process, added a blog, and a whole section to keep family members and friends in the loop.

Has it been a while since your website was last refreshed? Contact us for a quote.

We started 2008 with the installation of a way-finding kiosk for Boone County Kentucky’s brand new library facility.  This was a nice physical installation with our fabrication partners at Adex International, and our unique kiosk software application helped people find their way around the new facility.

Over the course of the year, we created a lot of lead generation tools for Verizon Wireless (in partnership with Marketing Werks), such as kiosk apps, BlackBerry phone apps and websites that work together to use various media to collect, incentivize and reward customers and prospects.  Our full-service approach has improved their methods over time, and used the appropriate tools to capture those leads.

A real standout website we did for with Marketing Werks for Verizon Wireless was a micro site centered around the new BlackBerry Storm phone launch.  This creative and tech-savvy tool allows guests at events to get their picture taken and download them online after the event. And also register to win big prizes! We’re really happy with the design work on this site.

In a unrelated but strangely similar telecom project, we built retail kiosks for Research In Motion.  That’s about all I can say about this project, but I figured I’d name drop a bit.

We did other kiosk projects such as the Engagement Health kiosk and the State of Ohio tourism project called Passage to Freedom, which included kiosks and a parent website.  We also launched digital signage projects for companies, such as Gardner Publishing.

Speaking of websites, we launched sites for the American Screenwriters Association, General Data Company and The Cincinnati IT consortium known as The Circuit. The Pink Ribbon Girls also got a redesign and rebuild from us to promote breast cancer awareness to young women.  The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center received a complete Web overhaul that saved their organization thousands of dollars annually via simplification and consolidation of services.

We attended a lot of tradeshows in 2008, such as the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Digital Signage Expo, and we exhibited at the KioskCom tradeshow in Las Vegas in April and again in New York City in October.  I became an advisory board member for the Digital Signage Association, and attended the inaugural meeting at DSE’s February board meeting.

Wow! Now that I look back, we accomplished a lot in 2008. I’m sure I’m leaving out some smaller projects and important details, but it all just runs together when you try to look back.

We are both really excited about applying what we learned to our current and upcoming projects, and sharing what we can with our team that was unable to attend. I for one am excited to adapt some of the brainstorming/problem solving skills and user interface tips. Borrowing words from a famous chef, we will be cranking up our work a notch.

One final detail, we got a sneak preview of Adobe Creative Suite 4 and I am IMPRESSED. There might not be as much wow factor as previous upgrades, but the usability and workflow changes are much appreciated by your truly.

Also, Chris and Erik are in Chicago at www.aneventapart.comfor web design listening to notable industry speakers such as Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Cameron Moll and many others.  It’s a total geek fest from what I can tell.  Chris is making updates to Twitter throughout the conferences, his remarksare a crackup.  Sounds like a sea of Apple fans.  Not that we are not fans, Erik is a Mac head here in our office.  I just think it is funny that design happens on Macs and the world reads web pages primarily on Windows.  Such is the world for now, unless Apple can gain more market share!   (Go APPL, I own your stock in my retirement…)

I will also keep my Twitter & Facebook pages updated throughout KioskCom.  And we will hopefully be able to update this blog with some interesting show information.   Gotta go pack and catch an early flight to Manhattan.  Later!

Hofstadter’s law: any task you’re planning to complete will always take longer than expected – even when this knowledge is taken into account.

The answer seems to be to ask how long something similar took, and even though the time seems insanely long, it’s probably correct.

Last week we changes the name of the Freedom Forum to the Freedom Blog, and while over-all traffic to the site has been up a bit, the visits to the blog section have tripled in the last week.