It’s been a busy week for me, but I promised a full blog post on my latest completed project, and here it is.
As I mentioned earlier this month, I was contacted by Dan Sebring, as he was looking for website help for his campaign. Dan is a conservative candidate running against incumbent Gwen Moore in Wisconsin’s 4th Congressional District. I don’t live in that district, but I support Dan’s candidacy and was happy to help.
We first met on Wednesday, August 11 to discuss the strategy and direction of the new website. Because of the time urgency of the campaign, with the election now under 70 days away, this project took priority for me. In the upcoming week, I poured a great deal of time and energy into remaking and rebuilding the website. On Monday, August 23, the site officially relaunched, making this one of my quickest turnaround times for a web project. Despite the short schedule, I firmly believe that the project is up to my own standards, and I think it might be some of the best work I’ve done.
They key component of the project was streamlining the website. Dan’s previous website had a bevy of outstanding information about him, his policies, and his candidacy. However, improvements were needed in the cataloging and organizing of this information. Visitors needed to easily be able to see what sets Dan apart from his opponent. To combat this problem, I rethought the site’s structure and implemented a logical hierarchy. Similar content is grouped together in a jQuery-powered dropdown menu at the top of every page. This makes it very easy for visitors to jump around the site and always be a click away from what they want to access.
The second critical change I made to the website was in its underlying structure. The previous site was built on static HTML pages, and I installed WordPress to remedy this deficiency. WordPress allows for Dan to log into the site and use a simple administrative interface to keep things up-to-date. He can access this interface from any Internet-connected computer, and no software other than a web browser is required for him. The interface allows him to post new news articles, update page content, and embed rich content like audio clips, video clips, and documents such as PDF’s. The new photo slideshow on the site’s homepage can also be managed through this interface. In addition to this administration area, Dan can also use his Google account to update the campaign event calendar, which is synchronized with the website.
Interactivity was a third thing I strived to improve in this website redesign. Dan already had a Twitter account and Facebook page, but these social networking tools were linked to his site in the most minimal of fashion. I built a Facebook Fan Box and a Twitter feed into the site’s home page, and each news article on the site also includes links to tweet, share, and like. The news articles also include an area for visitors to leave comments (powered by IntenseDebate). I firmly believe that these social features will keep visitors more engaged and interested, and it will help drive traffic to the site.
To help measure this expected increase in traffic, I have also included Google Analytics in the site. Dan already used Google Analytics, but I have also installed a helpful WordPress plugin that will allow him to get a quick overview of Analytics statistics right from the administrative interface.
I am continuing to help with managing the site. I am providing Dan with a detailed overview of WordPress, as well as a custom reference guide to assist him in using. However, I also realize that there are many responsibilities involved with a campaign, and as such, I am still helping ease some of the burden for him by assisting with ongoing maintenance of the site.
Click here to take a look at Dan’s site and learn more about his campaign. If you reside in the 4th District, I strongly encourage you to consider voting for him.
You can always find out the latest about this project and all of my other projects by visiting my Projects page. And, as always, I would love to hear your comments and feedback.