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Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland Website Rebuild
Project Overview
For 100 years, the Girl Scouts have been building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland serves more than 16,000 girls and adults in 80 Kansas counties through its operational headquarters in Wichita, Kan., and regional offices in Emporia, Garden City, Hays and Salina.
We are so proud to have worked with Cat, Dianne and Traci at the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland office to design and build a new website. The project spanned about 3 months and was launched just in time for cookie sales kickoff.
Goals
Goals for the new website included a fresh, new design that conveyed a clean, concise impression with better organization and content control. It was also important that we utilize widgets and feeds to better manage reusable information, and create an information architecture and navigational system that was more automated and efficient. Lastly, we wanted to utilize the WordPress platform.
Process
The process included initial planning meetings to gather information and requirements for the new site. Phases of the project included content organization and migration, design planning, WordPress theme development and functionality development. The process also included migrating content from another WordPress blog, testing the site with various browsers and, most importantly, patience (and occasional girl scout cookies to keep us going).
Outcomes
Design
A textured background with a color-coded ribbon effect, using earthy tones was created to in the process of designing a cleaner, more concise site. The slider on the homepage was designed with lots of color to create a fun, lively effect. Transparent drop downs create an clean effect and navigational items are color-coded according to content category. Stylish sidebar widgets were custom created, offering an appealing way for information to be viewed.
Functionality/Features
A tiered navigational system along the left sidebar of secondary pages was added for easy browsing and allowing for the homepage to have a cleaner look. Automatic feeds were made for the calendar of events with the added ability to specify which events are fed to the site (as opposed to simply feeding chronologically) for the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland to decipher which events to promote. The calendar can also be filtered to show specific color-coded categories for different councils.
Information Architecture
During the planning phase, we laid the foundation for the new site’s content and navigational system in this sitemap.
Thanks to Lee Media Group, we have a company website that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but beautifully functional as well.
Working with Mia and her team has been a rewarding and educational process. We have learned so much from them regarding the beginning-to-end website development process as well as helping us identify and execute our social media objectives. Mia is an educator at heart and she went to great lengths to ensure we understood the segments of the website that we would ultimately be managing and updating.
Mia has a keen business sense and deep understanding of the unique elements necessary to have a successful online presence. She has a creative thought process when it comes to promoting your business; not only in a traditional marking environment, but in the virtual realm as well.
We look forward to a long and profitable relationship with Lee Media Group as they continue to help us grow and market our business. http://simplepleasuresetc.com
Sarah Leftwich
As the Technology Coordinator and Web Administrator for Holy Cross Lutheran Church and School, I have worked with several business professionals in the field of technology. Of those I have worked with Mia Lee has proven to be one of the most knowledgeable, creative, attentive and personable professionals I’ve had to joy to work with. Our business manager and I sat down with Mia to discuss our options with a new web site in the beginning of this process. We had previously been clued into her excellent reputation by another colleague who works in the technology industry. Our immediate impression of her was one of skill, confidence, and excitement which told us she would accomplish our church’s goals in building a site that would reach out to the community, “Sharing God’s Love Through Faith in Christ”. She not only began the process by helping us organize our site to benefit our needs, but she also designed, built, initiated the launch, and followed through with personal training and continued support throughout the modification process. Her schedule was flexible and I never found her unavailable when she was needed most. She and her team made the beautiful site for our Church a success. We plan on upgrading our School website within the next year and I will look forward to working with Mia again to obtain the same success we had with our Church’s site. Holy Cross has recently upgraded our technology in which during this time we were looking for some additional help training staff. We felt comfortable calling on Mia for help in this area and will certainly not hesitate to do this again in the future if needed. I would recommend her and her team to anyone looking to grow and develop a site that will achieve the needs of their business with a personal touch. http://holycrosslutheran.net
Katherine Wallace
Thank you Mia for our wonderful new website. You are very easy to work with and did a thorough job of explaining and educating us on web development and creation. It is very clear that you are involved with the industry and continue to remain up-to-date on the latest and greatest methods for media marketing. http://www.eeform.com
Casey Barbour
Mia,
Thanks for providing your creativity and guidance to develope a presence on the web for New Covenant. We have a good base to build on as we add ways to make the site more useful as a communication tool. http://newcovenantpc.net
Dale Turner
Mia-Thank you for all your support, new and creative ideas! You have been so helpful in our
website progression over the years. We have had several hundred requests and receive lots of compliments on our website and Company DVD. You have also been great at helping us to get started promoting with social media/Facebook and we look forward to continuing our long relationship! http://Protectionshelters.com
Tamra Zogleman
Mia- Thank you for your help in making our event website shine! We were happy with the entire process, and look forward to partnering with you in the future. You make technology easy to use and understand. You rock! http://cocktailsandcookies.org
Cat Poland
Wayman Oil Company was without a website at all and as a company was in need of rejuvenation. I met with Mia and I could immediately tell the wheels were turning, her energy, excitement, and creativity immediately showed. She came to our facility took photos, gathered history and we discussed our company and what we do. Mia took that information and developed our website. Additionally she has been instrumental in getting our on-line payment site up and running, and she is responsible as well for our social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. It is obvious to us that she is an asset to Wayman Oil Company and we look forward to a long relationship with Lee Media Group as our Network Consultants
Keep up the great work ! http://waymanoil.com
Mike Tanner
We love the beginning stages of our new website and social media campaign! Mia has been wonderful to work with and so supportive to our wants and needs. Thank you Lee Media Group! http://educationaldesignsolutions.com/
Amanda Wurth