Beacon is pleased to announce the launch of Framingham State University’s Academics section redesign.

NEW Academics Section

After completing a redesign of Framingham State University’s main website in the summer of 2010, the client contracted with us to address the Academics section such that it would be more effective in reaching prospective and current students.  Well, we are proud to announce the launch of the newly redesigned Academics section and all department sections as well.  The client had a very tight deadline for this project in order to have the new site launch coincide with a planned ad campaign.  Beacon’s Web Development Team juggled its resource plan to complete this project on time and within budget (again)!

NEW Department Section

Justin Klingman managed the project and Wendy Honeycutt, worked directly with the client to create the beautiful design.  Keana Lynch completed the template and Cascade development a little early and perfectly, and Thomas Brinegar customized the jQuery homepage slideshow on the Academics homepage.

The Vecoplan, LLC site was launched on August 4th. This site is slightly different than any other site Beacon has developed due to the fact it has been developed in a content management system called Typo 3.  Since Vecoplan is headquartered in Germany, the CMS for this North American website was mandated by Corporate because TYPO3 is very prevalent in Europe.  The challenge for this project was developing a new website that matched Corporate branding, yet focused on the products and services of Vecoplan LLC (No. America), provided improved usability and most importantly, sustained the SEO web marketing initiatives that are also being provided by Beacon.  Needless to say, the ramp up on a different CMS was extremely challenging, but our staff stepped up to deliver another high quality website!  In addition, our web marketing team worked with the web development team to successfully guard against the usual dip in organic traffic that can occur when migrating to a new website.

The site features the following:

• Rotating banner image on home page, updatable by client via CMS
• Several carousels that allow user to choose market sector, service area, etc.
• Mini-contact form housed in the footer
• Parts Order form through which customers can fill out and submit online
• Unique sub-navigation across center of page
• Product detail pages – Really beautiful product detail pages that showcase the product photography
• Integration of Vecoplan Midwest’s website

BEFORE

AFTER

A HUGE thanks goes out to Miral who really made it all work!! Miral was faced with the challenge of not only learning a whole new content management system to build this site in, but one where most of the instructional material was in German. Throughout this project he continually faced many challenges and met each one admirably.  This project was led by Stephanie, Project Manager, who did a great job of keeping the team moving forward during various challenges to add another unique launch to Beacon’s portfolio.  Other big contributors were Wendy, who provided the client with exactly what they needed for a design, Thomas who assisted with all of the Flash and carousel work, and Jeff who provided SEO feedback and analysis. Finally, William, Wayne, and Caleb whom all had a hand in the launch at some point – thank you Beacon team!

Beacon Technologies just successfully launched another ASPDNSF site for Mattress King. This was a big team effort, with assistance from virtually everyone on the TSG and SW Development groups. For several people, this was their first experience with an ASPDNSF site and they picked it up in record time and with much success.

Here are some interesting features used on this site:

· Rotating home page images that the client can maintain in Admin site.

· Filtered product listings page (“Narrow Your Results” in left nav).

· “Tabbed” product detail page.

· Nicely formatted “Store Locations” page.

· Customer Video page.

“Building a web site requires teamwork. Although I’m your facilitator in building your web site, the web site is an extension of your company, it still needs your work to be successful. I may be your biggest fan, but you definitely know your company better than I do.”

This may come as a surprise to some in the audience, but I’ve said that on occasion to clients in the past. When it comes to web sites, it really does require teamwork from all sides to make it successful.

I hear common questions from clients about what is required to make a successful site. Time and time again though, I have to stress that there are certain processes to web development that are done by certain people and these separations are usually, unfortunately, not common knowledge. So allow me to spoil some important secrets and provide a good foundation for those of you who are interested in creating a new company web site or looking to redesign your company’s web site.

“What does research tell us is the #1 ‘make or break’ thing we need for our web site?”
Good content. Studies time and time again show that content is more important than navigation, visual design, functionality and interactivity. ¹ To put it into perspective, content is what drives people to your site in the first place whether on purpose or by accident. Content is what people will tell other people about your company’s web site. When I advise someone to buy a book off of Amazon.com, I just told someone about the content. When I share a link with someone to read an article at BBC World News, I just advertised about the content. When I search a search engine to find an answer to my question, I’m in desperate need to find content about my question.

Beacon can provide the most exceptional, functional, useful, marketable, and pleasant web site for you, but if people don’t have a reason to use it, they simply won’t be using it. Beacon can advise you to add certain pages in your site like a “Site Map”, “Privacy Policy”, or “About Us” page, but you know your company a lot better than we do. If your company is all about selling different types of brick, only you will know if it’s important to have content on that web site explaining the different types of brick you offer and what your customers expect to see. Would they like to see photos of the different bricks? We don’t know, and we’ll suggest these things to you, but you have a much better perspective on it than we do. Just remember that your customer/audience is your #1 knowledge bank and the answers to their questions are usually necessary content material for your web site.

“What are some things we can do to improve our content?”
General tips on improving your content:

1. You may be better off hiring at least one writer to write your content. There are actually businesses devoted to writing content for the Internet you could look into.
2. Build credibility within your content by providing articles with references, show author’s/company’s credentials, make sure it’s up-to-date, and provide links to outside resources. ²
3. Provide the content based on whether it will be read on screen or printed. Generally, if you want people to read it on the monitor, and therefore quickly, keep it concise. ³
4. Avoid jargon, use familiar words, use abbreviations sparingly, use an active versus a passive voice, and make first sentences descriptive within paragraphs. ⁴
5. If all else fails, you may need to reinterpret the feedback you are getting from your customers. “Customers can’t tell you how to fix a problem; they can only tell you that the problem exists.” You may have to rethink what they’re trying to tell you. ⁵

“We loved reviewing the analysis documents with you; we never thought about this aspect before. Was there anything we could have done to foreshadow this?”
There are many ways to help the success of your site and ease the analysis process. Here are some things you should consider before starting work on the site:

1. Think about your company’s web site as a medium to become an advertisement, a brochure, a customer service representative, a call center, a store, a face and a reference to your company. It can be all the things that make up your company. If you think about the web site as a separate entity from your company, then it will never be successful, it won’t work for your company. Make sure to plan your web site into your company’s business, marketing and long-term strategies before looking to create it. ⁵
2. “It’s a good idea to communicate these things to, and develop consensus from, management and those working as representatives during the development process later.” ⁶

The most important thing to remember is teamwork - when everyone involved does their best, the site will always be successful! What questions did you have regarding things you could do to improve the success of your site?

1 Asher, 1980; Badre, 2002; Baldwin, Peleg-Bruckner and McClintock, 1985; Celsi and Olson, 1988; Levine, 1996; Nielsen and Tahir, 2002; Nielsen, 1997b; Nielsen, 2000; Rajani and Rosenberg, 1999; Sano, 1996; Sinha, et al., 2001; Spyridakis, 2000; Stevens, 1980;
2 Fogg, 2002; Fogg, et al., 2001; Lightner, 2003; Nielsen, 2003.
3 Shaikh and Chaparro, 2004.
4 Cockburn and Jones, 1996; Evans, 1998; Horton, 1990; Mayhew, 1992; Morkes and Nielsen, 1997; Morkes and Nielsen, 1998; Nall, Koyani and Lafond, 2001; Schramm, 1973; Spyridakis, 2000; Tullis, 2001; Zimmerman and Prickett, 2000; Zimmerman, et al., 2002; Furnas, et al., 1987; Kucera and Francis, 1967; Leech, Rayson and Wilson, 2001; Spyridakis, 2000; Whissell, 1998; Ahlstrom and Longo, 2001; Evans, 1998; Morrell, et al., 2002; Nall, Koyani and Lafond, 2001; Nielsen and Tahir, 2002; Tullis, 2001; Flower, Hayes and Swarts, 1983; Horton, 1990; Palermo and Bourne, 1978; Palmquist and Zimmerman, 1999; Redish, Felker and Rose, 1981; Smith and Mosier, 1986; Spinillo and Dyson, 2000/2001; Spyridakis, 2000; Wright, 1977; Zimmerman and Clark, 1987; Bailey, Koyani and Nall, 2000; Lynch and Horton, 2002; Morkes and Nielsen, 1997; Morkes and Nielsen, 1998; Spyridakis, 2000.
5 Lee Gomes, “Good Site, Bad Site: Evolving Web Design“. 2007, The Wall Street Journal.
6 Badre, 2002; Coney and Steehouder, 2000; Detweiler and Omanson, 1996.
All references, with exception to Gomes, have been  obtained within the research of Shneiderman, “Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines”. 2007, U.S. Government Official Edition. ISBN: 0-16-076270-7