portfolio spotlight

Case: The client, Nonprofit Risk Management Center, wanted a fresh, new look for their website, which had had the same design for six years. There was a challenge, however: the 1,200-page site made no use of templates or cascading style sheets (CSS), which allow for more control of the layout and text formatting. As a result, each page had to have a template applied to it, all text formatting of the content had to be cleared out (since it would be controlled by CSS instead) and then the content was formatted for the CSS.

Solution: The new website has a fresh color palette and design, and the navigation was reorganized and simplified. The site now invites visitors to read the content and find what they need more efficiently.

Templates, server-side include (SSI) files and CSS make the large site controllable on page, section and sitewide levels: the entire site is able to be updated by changing one file instead of every single page by hand. This allows for extremely efficient updates and even for an easy redesign in the future.

Another benefit is that the pages are made up mostly of content rather than code, so file sizes are smaller and therefore load faster online.

Finally, one of the most important benefits is that the site is now search-engine optimized (SEO), resulting in increased traffic to the site by making it easier to be found via Internet searches.

The client commented: "Colleen Gratzer has been an invaluable member of our Web site team, providing leadership in the design and launch of a brand-new, up-to-date site that has captured the imaginations of our clients. We continue to receive positive feedback on Colleen's design for our new site."

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