With the goal of combining numerous web properties into one overarching vision, we admittedly were a bit overwhelmed at first with where to begin. After reading several hundred pages on their website, our strategists finally had an aha moment and determined a cocktail of technologies to suit SER’s needs. For the main website and microsites, the Sitefinity platform would be used. For chapter sites, WordPress’s multi-site mode would work. Memberclicks would be used for membership management / login / dues collection.
With the tools chosen, the next challenge was to come up with a way to organize the site’s content. SER has many publications and resources, but also has to act as an overall resource for its members. Balancing a showcase of their ecological restoration work with member benefits like a job board and publications became a mix of art, theory, and trial and error.
The final wireframes were on point with SER’s goals. For this project we created nearly 20 unique templates for each of the site types.
SER wanted a design that was modern / crisp but also held true to the nature / organic “roots” of the organization. While we normally include 6 revisions in the graphics design stage, we performed nearly 24 edits to get to a design our client was happy with. Around revision 15 our designers and the SER team finally hit the breakthrough we all needed, and a few tweaks later we got to the final comps.
With the main design out of the way creating matching designs for the micro sites and chapter sites was seamless.
With all of the prior planning, the coding stage of this project became a breeze. The Sitefinity Site needed to integrate with Memberclicks for membership management. The site supports an events calendar, dynamic content forms, and several other custom content workflows to help SER with back office tasks that were originally done all with e-mail.
For the chapter sites we used WordPress Multi-Site (also known as Network mode). This allows us to control one template with an unlimited number of chapter sites that can build pages off of it.
The combination of WordPress + Sitefinity was chosen to allow full flexibility on the main site, while keeping costs down on the chapter sites, while still letting all staff members have the option of updating their respective websites without the need for significant technical skills.
