The Request
GKCCF director of communications, Jaclyn, and technology operations manager, Zach, asked BOLD in September to redesign their main website with a simple, streamlined navigation and a look and feel consistent with their latest collateral pieces. The design was to correlate with their recently completed 2007 Annual Report , align with some of the design elements of the two custom specialty sites, but have a unique look, The annual report celebrated the thirty-year anniversary of the foundation and featured thirty donor stories which were to be prominently featured on the home page and within the website. Designated staff members must continue to be able to edit content through a web-based system rather than be limited to desktop software on specific computers. And much of the existing content needed to be removed to achieve a simpler, more targeted website. The site needed to launch five weeks later, when the other sites would be launched.

The Plan
BOLD had migrated the existing GKCCF website, built by another firm, onto a CMS platform (Ektron) in late 2007. The web-based CMS platform allowed GKCCF staff to edit content from anywhere. Normally, BOLD likes to have six to eight weeks from receiving all content to develop a website. But by cloning the existing website into a "dev site" (offline development site that the public would not see), BOLD was able to give GKCCF staff the ability to safely edit the content, delete pages and develop a new site map to assist in meeting the goal date for the project. GKCCF and BOLD had discussed site navigation and design and had defined requirements at the onset of the project. It was agreed that BOLD would use Adobe Flash to animate enlargement of donor pictures on the home page to draw visitors into the stories. A project manager coordinated the communications and ensured that needs from both parties were being addressed throughout the project. Both GKCCF and BOLD met again to review proposed design concepts created by a BOLD graphic and web designer, and to coordinate on the resulting content. The web designer then imbedded the Flash piece and "skinned" the site (built in all of the design elements), using CSS, html, javascript, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Illustrator. Both the designer and project manager tested the site for quality assurance and presented the site for final approval.

The Result
The newly designed gkccf.org was officially launched on election day, November 4th, 2008 resulting in many compliments on the site. Thos. O'Brien, managing partner for BOLD, was on hand for the launching party at the offices of GKCCF, and then rushed off to cast his vote. To fit thirty photos onto a home page in a pleasing manner was quite a feat. The web designer had created the perfect shape, size and color scheme (some photos in color, some in black and white) to pull this off. The site has a totally fresh feel to it, and the navigation is simpler and cleaner. GKCCF staff can continue to edit their content as before, and visitors get a sense of continuity when moving through the gateway site to the external specialty sites. Check out the site yourself at gkccf.org.