Polaris IT Solutions was approached August of 2010 by a board member of FVPCOC to redesign the website on a pro bono basis for the upcoming 10th birthday celebration of FVPCOC. FVPCOC board members expressed concern at the usability of the current site (for staff and users) and the message conveyed by the logo.
The logo was redesigned to be more clean and simple with an easily readable font – Gills Sans MT Condensed. The ribbon is that of domestic violence victims, and the color was drawn from the original logo and website.
The website was built using the Joomla content management system. The CMS will allow FVPCOC staff to easily update the website, where before it would have required someone with a knowledge of html. Most of the website content was migrated directly to the new site with a fair amount of reorganization. The main content was separated into three categories that represent the primary functions of FVPCOC: get help, get involved and get educated. The first category – get help – was given priority over the other two and is featured first on the photo slider on the front page.
Originally, the site had vertical navigation along the left column of the page with 14 items. The left navigation column took up approximately 1/5 of the horizontal space on the page. This was changed for the new site. The navigation was condensed into 7 main items arranged horizontally along the top of the page. The three main sections each had subnavigation items that dropped down when rolled-over. Switching to horizontal navigation frees up a significant amount of width on a page for content.
Another key change was the addition of the phone hotline bar across the very top of the page. One of the main concerns voiced by FVPCOC board members was that the phone number for the hotline was not displayed prominently enough. This was remedied with the new site – and an ‘escape’ button was added – a link to google.com so a user could quickly navigate away from the page to ensure his or her privacy.
