It’s Alive!!!

I’ve just checked out our new site, and I was shocked:
It’s aliiiiveeee!!!

Melinda updated most of the sections, and the site is just buzzing with new contents. The tag cloud went crazy with all the new topics and activities.

It is an amazing experience to see that the site really works as an Auckland-wide information hub. The Notice Board is updated several times a week to share the news and activities of community organizations.

We are still in contact with Melinda through e-mail and phone, and she is really getting the hang of managing the site. She uses our step-by-step manual every day.

I am still amazed how well we worked together. Without their support, open mindedness and flexibility it would have been impossible to finish and launch everything before the official deadline.

Video Summary

Here is the OpenEyes Video Summary.
I had to overcome my camera-shyness and all the bad memories from the TV Workshop at Uni. It was still a horrifying experience to sit there and talk with my funny accent.
So this is why I've put on the serious face... and it was too early in the morning for my Sunday Wine session.



Huh, my friend just told me that I look like someone who is just going to soil his pants.
Well, thanks ...
Normally I'm not like that. :)

Project Summary - References

We would like to say thank you to Sandra, our amazing graphic design tutor at Media Design School, who gave us feedback about the logo, and recommended a great host service.

Another big thanks to Denise from http://dcm.co.nz/ who became the host of our site in the last minute. The domain was bought on this Tuesday evening and we contacted DCM the next morning. Denise gave us instant feedback and helped to link the domain to the host server. Thursday morning the domain was ready for me to migrate the site from the free hosting service. With new domain and new hosting environment the site migrating in 36 hours was a great achievement and it would have been impossible without the incredibly fast and flexible service Denise gave us.

We are glad to say that we managed to fulfill the brief without any other external professional help.

Project Summary - Website Features

Main Features:
Site Link

• Web 2.0 magazine layout with feature box for the next activity
• Every dynamic content and most recent news are available on the main page
• Tag cloud - filter news with relevant keywords
• RSS feeds for posts and comments
• e-Newsletter subscription box on the sidebar, an integrated newsletter system sends out e-mails with the new posts. Users can manage their subscription, filter categories, etc.
  
• Links for the other organizations

Single post with advanced social bookmarking

• Share This button with 34 different social bookmark options
• TwitThis button - makes a post on Twitter with "TinyURL"
• Commenting

Google-Map :)


Sophisticated Forum

• Fully integrated with WordPress user registrations and logins
• Underpinned by a powerful user and permission system
• Private Messaging system
• Build in Search tool
• Options Signatures, Signature Image, Avatars, and Rankings
• Optional and various RSS feeds and email subscription to topics

We also created a small stock photo library for the site (with free images from sxc.hu). The thematic pictures are cropped exactly the size to fit into the layout of the site. No editing needed, just upload to post and publish.


We made a 18 page step-by-step manual about the administration of the site. Download PDF

Project Summary - The Results

I give a short summary about our results first, you can find here everything what we did.

1. Rebranding:
We created a new name and visual identity to the organization.

"A logo what incorporates all the important aspects of the organization and also reflects its situation and identity within the North Shore and New Zealand."

2. Web:
We created a brand new homepage what really works as an interactive information hub for community groups. We integrated features like advanced social bookmarking, tagging, commenting, forum, Google Map, e-Newsletter, etc. Users can register, filter the information to get what is relevant to them, interact with each other and with Community Connections.
The link is: http://www.communityconnections.org.nz/

3. Electronic Publishing
We convinced the organisation to change their publishing process to create electronic documents instead of printing. These changes were made mostly in their way of thinking. We showed them how to use the Acrobat and produced cover-templates with the new image. They are going to produce the “Community Resources” publications in PDF from now on. Share their knowledge within the digital space.

The cover templates of the Community Resources series. The publications have a thematic color-code system. Our aim was to create a consistent, clean, effective cover system. The titles can be modified in Acrobat.

4. Applying the new image wherever we could:
Rebranding an organisation is a multidisciplinary creative process, so we also designed business cards, a letterhead and a new cover for their monthly Newsletter (PDF from now on) and for their yearly publication the “Funding Directory”.

Letterhead and business cards

New cover for the Funding Directory

New cover template for the (from now on PDF) Newsletter. Featured titles can be edited in Acrobat.

Lesley's post from Melinda's

What is it with deadlines and unexpected challenges.
Wednesday at NSCSS we lost all internet connections. Our IT guy diagnosed either phone line or modem issues.
Thursday still no internet. Friday it can only get better.......arrived at 8.30am to NO power and NO phone and of course NO internet access.
PLan B - when Kyle arrived to present his progress on the new Website we quickly jumped in my car and went to Bayswater to Melindas home. Whewwww.
We are rapt. - As the CEO achieving the new corporate image to match a name change, AS WELL as the new website is way beyond our expectations.
To have all our print media image upgraded, ability to move to digital formats and to gain some interactive forum capability is only HUGE for us. Team Openeyes have certainly dilated our pupils .....think digital, think endless possibilities. \
Go Team Openeyes sincereest thanks
Lesley Farmer CEO Community Connections

Team BloodyEyes (but still open)

Wow, the adrenalin is pumping through our veins as the final day slowly approaches - tick-tock. :p To tell the truth I’m enjoying these final days the most, because it is full on and I love to work under pressure.

I miss my beers – but it would just slow me down.

I spent every morning this week from 9-11.30 at the NSCSS office to show Melinda how to manage the website, how to create PDFs in Acrobat and how she can use the cover-templates we made.

I’m glad that we managed to keep our schedule and left the final 2 days mostly to handle unexpected difficulties. Of course we have some! There is always something … I hope we can sort everything out in the last 2 days (we call this the “f***up-time” at school). ;)

The website is pretty much ready, but we still have to write a step-by-step tutorial for it.

Well I’d better start to work on those final designs and start to create the manual. Then try to have at least 3 hours sleep and go back at 9 am to the centre in Takapuna to present all the improvements and finalize everything.

Here are some letterhead and business card designs for eyecandy ;)

Mid-Challenge Review 2 – Web Solutions Part 2

Our solutions to improve the site

We had to:

• Rebuild the site from scratch using the Wordpress publishing system. Wordpress is a very stable, free and highly customizable solution. Its administration requires only basic level MS office skills.
  
• Put the Community Connections news and event calendar on the main page with the notice board, so every dynamic content and new information can be seen at once.
• Add tags to every board notice and news to categorise them for easy search.
• Provide the possibility of social bookmarking for every post (del.icio.us, digg, Facebook, Yahoo, Google).
• Integrate an e-Newsletter system, to be able to broadcast all the news to the community groups through e-mail. Every time a post is created, an automated e-mail is sent to all of the subscribers (ie. the other community groups). It is easy to subscribe/unsubscribe on the sidebar of the website.
  
• Make it possible to leave comments. The integrated forum improves the interactivity of the site – everyone who is registered on the site is able to contribute to the forum and create new topics.
• Make available the list of all current publications in the resources section. These publications are not for free, so we can not put them on the site as downloadable PDFs. :(
  

Hopefully we are going to finish building and testing the website on this weekend, but after that there is still a lot to do. We have to introduce the new CMS to Melinda and make a step-by-step manual for her.

At the moment the new website is on a free host during the development period. We will transfer it onto the domain of CC that way when the board approval gets through they can start using the new site immediately.

Here are some preview of the new site.

The main page: all of the dynamic content and the "feature box" with the most relevant CC News.

The single post page: social bookmarking and commenting.

The forum section: an interactive - collaborative space.

The easy to use admin section for the office users.

And the old site :)

Mid-Challenge Review 2 – Web Solutions Part 1

The old website really needs a complete makeover. But it is not just the new image and look, it's the entire structure and the way the information was presented on the site.

Community Connections (CC) works as an information hub and the website can be the main tool to broadcast the news.

The problem areas with the old website are:

• There is no dynamic content on the main page.
• No logical hierarchy in the menu system.
• It is hard to find the dynamic content. The users have to browse through the entire menu-system to find the recent activities and news.
• CC provides a notice board for the community news and all of the other community groups around Auckland use it. This is one of the most visited section of the website. It has new content almost every day. The main problem with it is that its content is not categorized; so it is very hard to search for a specific information on the board.
• The notice board is a great tool, but there needs to be more interactive tool on the site.
• The old site is based on an old CMS, but the capabilities of that system is getting very limited.

The main page of the old site: serious makeover needed :)

You can read about our answers and solutions in the upcoming post!

Mid-Challenge Review 1 – New name & Image

Our community group was thinking of changing their name “North Shore Community and Social Services” for a long time. To change the name and image of a community group is a long, complicated and expensive project – and in the non-profit area it is not considered to be a high priority - although it is a very important factor of the overall communication.

Now, thanks to the yMedia Challenge, they are able to have these things done fast and extremely cost efficiently. The decision making of the government board can take months. But once they get all the necessary approvals, they are going to have everything ready to use immediately.

The new name is going to be “Community Connections” - which is short and smart and basically this is what they do. They connect community groups and provide them with information, special resources, publications and workshops. They work as an information hub in the non-profit area.

So this is what their new name and logo has to communicate and we think it just does exactly that now. After researching, brainstorming, thumbnailing and symbol-matrixing, the inspiration came to us and I was able to create a logo what incorporates all the important aspects of the organization and also reflects its situation and identity within the North Shore and New Zealand.
We provided several versions of the new logo to Lesley, Melinda and Enas at CC. They chose the one above and I am very happy with their decision. I think they picked the best one :)
On the weekend we are going to make letterheads, business cards with this logo and some publication templates also which they can use in MS Word and Adobe Acrobat.

Mid-Challenge Review - Intro

Time is running fast and the first week of the challenge is almost over! It is time to review what happened so far and plan what will happen next week.

I personally hate to read long posts, so I try to publish this review in several shorter chunks in the next two days - just to give you a smooth reading experience with minimal scrolling action. :)