AnswerLab chooses Getting Sites Built to create their new site
By Donovan | October 5, 2007
AnswerLab provides top-notch usability studies for today’s websites. Clients use AnswerLab’s detailed usability reports, based on test subject feedback, to make improvements. As experts in their field, the professionals at AnswerLab know the importance of maintaining a robust and effective web presence.
“We were impressed with Getting Sites Built’s ability to quickly understand our needs and put together a solution that worked for us. We appreciated Donovan and Canton’s flexibility and responsiveness, which made working with them a pleasure.”
Getting Sites Built was hired to upgrade and update AnswerLab’s existing website, so that it better reflected the honed AnswerLab business model. Working with a third-party designer, we re-engineered their outdated site into a web standards-based site. By facilitating a team environment, through open and detailed communication, we developed a clean-coded infrastructure during the same timeframe that the designer worked on his deliverables, the look and feel of revamped content.
The specifications called for XHTML and CSS. We used these standards to build a stable site structure, ensuring that the resulting site would validate and be well represented in a wide variety of browsers. We also crafted a site that would be simple to update by using ‘include’ files for repeating items such as the footer and various sidebar areas.
Thanks to strong project management, the new and improved website went “live” right on schedule.
We were very pleased with the positive feedback we received from AnswerLab and their in-house beta testers. Thanks to the successful project completion, Getting Sites Built was given an additional contract to turn the AnswerLab client list into a dynamic Flash component. The new website boasts featured client logos that subtly cross-fade, selected from AnswerLab’s notable Fortune 100 clientele.
Now AnswerLab has a modern website that truly represents their innovative work.
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
General Contractors, Inc. and Getting Sites Built
By Donovan | June 7, 2007
General Contractors, Inc. hired marketing communication experts Avantgarde to handle their marketing needs. When it came time to work on the GCI website, Avantgarde turned to Getting Sites Built.
100% Flash Solution
While many websites these days include Flash elements, few have been built entirely around Flash technology. Working from early conceptual mock-ups, Getting Sites Built created a 100% Flash-based website for GCI. The result is a stunning Flash experience. The interactive elements, like scrolling text, and thumbnail picture selection, make for an elegant website that stands apart from the crowd.
“Donovan and his team were critical in helping us develop the GCI General Contractors website. Their technical knowledge combined with their project management skills helped complete the project to perfection on time and under budget.”- Marcus Colombano, Avantgarde
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Give2Asia and Getting Sites Built
By Donovan | June 1, 2007
Give2Asia, an independent affiliate of The Asia Foundation, is a nonprofit organization that assists both donors and grantees in the flow of philanthropy to Asia. As their sole webmaster, Getting Sites Built has been meeting their varied web needs for the last two years. Here are some examples of the work we have done for this organization.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Getting Sites Built. A Case Study.
By Donovan | April 28, 2007
THE ASIA FOUNDATION is a nonprofit, non-governmental, philanthropic organization that works to build a peaceful, prosperous, and open Asian-Pacific community. Getting Sites Built has developed a number of web solutions for this organization. We are also their contingency webmasters.
Here are three examples of the work that Getting Sites Built has done to address their website development needs.
Bringing the exhibit to the web
The Asia Foundation wanted a web-based version of the ‘real world’ Afghanistan Exhibit that was on display in Washington, DC.
Getting Sites Built created a custom Flash-based solution in less than three weeks. An interactive, web-based, Flash timeline now seamlessly displays the text and images from the physical exhibit.
Work Done: Research; Flash production and web staging; version detection; compatibility testing.
Creating In Asia
The Asia Foundation needed a means of sharing weekly news and information outside of the main website.
Getting Sites Built created In Asia. This separate website utilizes RSS feeds and email tools to broadcast content, while keeping the presence and feel of the parent site. Now there is an effective and easy way to disseminate weekly information.
Work Done: Research; Site installation and customization; graphics, training.
Embedding with integrity
The Asia Foundation asked us to solve a problem they were having with the existing Flash video player. The display on the interface of the gallery page only allowed for a small number of videos. The webmaster found the existing Flash-based answer too difficult and time-consuming to be useful.
Getting Sites Built created an elegant solution. We embedded the basic interface of the Flash player directly into the web page, maintaining the integrity of the presentation while addressing the root cause of the problem. It’s simple to add new videos now. The webmaster creates a new page in Dreamweaver and enters the URL to match the new video’s URL. That’s it! No need to jump through hoops just to add more video content.
Work Done: Research; Flash extraction and web staging; version detection; compatibility testing.
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Keep the color blind in mind when designing websites
By Donovan | April 23, 2007
Jeff Sarmiento of FreshBooks alerts us to a useful online tool that allows you to check what your images or website(s) look like from the eyes of someone who is color blind.
The site says, “Roughly 1 in 20 people have some sort of color vision deficiency.” I haven’t had any feedback yet regarding this issue but it’s nice to know I can properly design future sites with this in mind.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
What Would Seth Godin Do? A Plugin for WordPress.
By Donovan | April 19, 2007
Seth Godin advocates using cookies to determine new visitors to your site. Here’s an example of what he’s talking about. Let’s say I am visiting Tod Maffin’s site, todbits, for the first time. I’d see his site and a boxed in area right under the title of the first post. Inside this boxed area is a message, written by Tod, specifically for those who are visiting his site for the first time.
Pretty neat, I think. The real magic of the What Would Seth Godin Do WordPress Plugin is that after a few visits, the number of which you get to configure, the boxed area goes away so that regular visitors aren’t burdened by the message.
After refreshing the page three times, the message went away as you can see from the screenshot below. I think this plugin is an excellent use of cookies and is so easy to use, why wouldn’t you use it?
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
I like the Admin Menu Plugin For WordPress
By Donovan | April 17, 2007
WordPress plugins are central to an interesting and personal Dashboard and site. Everyone has their list of favorite plugins. As one who makes a living installing and customizing WordPress sites, I have my list of essential plugins. I’ll share those in the near future. For now I wanted to mention one of my favorite plugins, Admin Menu. It’s not something most of my clients want but I use it on some of my sites for it gives me quick and easy access to key pages in the Dashboard area of my WordPress sites.
Take a look at this screenshot for a section of the menu. You can see it in action at my site, Donovan’s Brain.
This menu appears at the top of my web pages. Sure, it pushes the page down a bit but the trade-off is worth it to me. Now, jumping to the Plugins page from my site takes only one click. Same with creating a new post, link, page and more.
Installation is about as easy as it gets. Just download the file. Drop it in your plugins folder. Activate the plugin and you are done.
Topics: Reviews | No Comments »
Just Launched: Philanthropy Associates Redesign
By Donovan | April 17, 2007
Philanthropy Associates wanted a redesign and the ability to easily update their site without having to always depend on a webmaster. Getting Sites Built redesigned the site, giving it a fresh look and a header that pops off the page. For ease of maintenance and scalability, we built the site on the WordPress foundation and provided basic training on how to update the site.
Some of the subtle details include sidebar graphic elements that change, depending on which page of the site you are viewing. The email links are encoded to avoid spambots from harvesting them, resulting in less spam. FeedBurner handles the RSS feed so that blog subscriber results are easily tracked. Likewise, Google Analytics is installed so that basic site stats are only a click away.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
New York Skywatch Site Launched
By Donovan | April 13, 2007
New York Skywatch is a WordPress powered website built and customized by Getting Sites Built. In addition to WordPress, a Gallery was also installed which will make it very easy for the site owner to upload photos.
The site was built in less than two weeks. It features nice touches like a FeedBurner RSS feed so that subscriber stats can easily be monitored. There is the Podpress plugin which will allow for easy and elegant podcasting abilities. And, as with all WordPress sites installed by Getting Sites Built, it has a ‘Reports’ plugin which allows the site administrator to quickly see a snapshot of their Google Analytics, revealing important information at a glance about site visitors.
Please visit the site and subscribe to the New York Skywatch RSS feed.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Just launched: In Asia WordPress site
By Donovan | March 9, 2007
The Asia Foundation needed a way to reach out to those readers looking to stay abreast of significant events shaping Asia. Working together, Getting Sites Built and The Asia Foundation set out to use the latest tools on the web to help get the word out. Presenting, In Asia.
For the site backbone, we decided on WordPress. We build many sites on WordPress since it provides 90% of what most people need. Once our client’s discover the world of WordPress, they get excited at how much time they’ll save updating their site.
One can subscribe to the RSS feed or get updates via email. For this solution, we turned to FeedBurner. I like FeedBurner since it gives my clients easy to read statistics on their subscribers.
There are lots of under the hood modifications going on that differ from a standard WordPress install. That’s what we’re all about at Getting Sites Built. Customizing the solution to meet your needs. In this case, The Asia Foundation had very specific requirements that we were able to implement.
Please visit the new In Asia site and take a look around. We’re very proud of the site and proud to help support the cause that The Asia Foundation is making in this world.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
