Improving education through technology
Uniting multiple initiatives under one brand umbrella
CHALLENGE
State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is a national nonprofit helping build and increase the capacity of state and national leaders to improve education through technology policy and practice. When we first began working with SETDA, the organization had recently completed a strategic planning process that included a brand identity refresh. Yet SETDA’s website remained outdated, and was a poor example of the organization’s technical focus and innovation — a concept that is core to SETDA’s mission. The site’s content was poorly organized, the messaging lacked clarity, and staff could not easily make updates. In addition, SETDA project initiatives that warranted individual websites were not integrated into the parent website, creating an information gap and disjointed user experience.
INSIGHT
As important as having a clean, modern website and content management system (CMS) was having a seamless interface between SETDA’s parent website and its microsites. All of these interconnected websites needed to have a consistent look and one CMS. By using a WordPress multi-site install, we were able to establish a single database from which all sites originate and that allows for a multi-faceted search across all SETDA websites. The SETDA team had long been frustrated with the disorganization of their website content and their inability to efficiently manage it so it was critical for us to create custom modules in the CMS that would reduce staff members' level of effort.
RESULTS
Stakeholders are well connected
- In the absence of compelling photography, the new website leverages typographic contrast, a bold color scheme, and strategic use of white space to denote information hierarchy, improve readability, and allow for easy navigation.
- Numerous customized editors in the CMS give SETDA staff a high level of control over their content and makes website administration much more streamlined than ever before.
- A powerful search allows users to search SETDA’s parent website and its microsites at once, and delivers comprehensive results.
FORGING AHEAD
Since the launch of the parent website, Blue Marble has developed additional microsites that operate independently but share important database and stylistic features that bring cohesion to front- and back-end user experience.
CLIENT
State Education Technology Directors Association
SERVICES
Website design and development