Overview of creating the NRT Web site.
Mike Kelly: I had been looking for Web developer for the past 5 years to help improve my current Web site. We were having quite a few problems and never thought the old Web site conveyed correctly what our product was about. It was back in December of 09 that my friend Scott Meaker told me about a “old high school buddy” that was coming back from Europe after living there for 10 years. He said he was a fantastic Web developer, Artist-programmer. Sounded like just what we needed. Brian stopped by our Lab in January of 2010 and spoke to us about site design, social media integration, the importance of video and photography in telling our story. Everything he spoke about seemed to fall in line with what we needed. So we hired him and his team to create our Web site.
March 2010
Brian Prosser: After speaking to Mike in January we were able to start the development of his site in March. We first began to work on the site structure and design.
Design: We found photos of the marine organisms located in the Puget sound. (The Puget sound is located in the Pacific Northwest) From these photos we create a background and a “brand image” that would not only be part of his Web site but also would be found in all the social media and other marketing materials, including traditional print. Part of this brand exercise was also creating a new logo.
Development: The site structure requirements were to include:
- An easy to understand login process.
- A shopping cart that displayed individual products that could be tied into the Amazon “Promotion Ads” program.
- Social media integration.
- Site design that was able to successfully tell the “NRT Story” through professional written content, video, photography.
- A blog that would feature posts about the NRT research, product and testimonial information.
For the site, we created custom Word Press plugins & widgets that handled the graphic content, the specials in the sidebar, the shopping cart, the feedback system as well as tracking the orders. All of these element were tied into the Dashboard as to make it easier for Mike and his staff to manage the content and contact information coming from the public.
Content: In early April we began filming video and doing the photography. Both came together exceptionally well. We then began integrating the video and photography into the design of the Web site.
Social Media: We also tied the site in to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr as well as setup advertising in Amazon, Facebook, Google Ads and Yahoo media services.
It really was a pleasure working with Mike and his staff and we look forward to a long a successful relationship with him and the NRT team.
