Edmonton Rowing Club
Helping to increase the visibility and viability of the club through significantly improved website function and esthetics.
THE CHALLENGE & GOALS
The initial challenge we faced when taking over as the webmaster for this website was having to clean up the profile of the web host itself. As we progressed into the project, it was decided through club vote that we would proceed with a major overhaul of the website to make it more appealing and functional for visitors and members. During the process we also discovered that their original host was inadequate for the traffic they were getting and it was decided to make a switch to a new host. The mindNET team took this task in stride and handled the entire migration to a new host with no downtime.
OUR GOALS
1.) Update the design to make it stand out among the other rowing clubs and attract prospective rowers to the club
2.) Make a functional members portal with all of the information delivered in a fashion that allows for mobile devices to access all information
3.) Acquire new photos from the rowing club members and independent photographers – Integrate them into the new page design to showcase the club
4.) Simplify the theme and plugins to allow for rapid design changes and updates
5.) Facilitate a full website migration to a new host without any downtime.
Photo Acqusition & Optimization
The first step to the project was to locate all of the photos that we could find for the club, it’s members and rowing in general. Even before we began the mockup stage we felt it was important to know what assets we would have to really attact prospective members to the club. Not only did we acquire a wide variety of photos from past and present members, but we also located some independent photographers who had additional photos that we could use with attribution.
Once everything was in place, we used several design programs to streamline and shrink the photos to eliminate bloat on the website due to unnecessarily large photo files.
UPDATED PAGE DESIGNS
The initial club design was quite basic, so we decided to go for a more robust design with straightforward menu system to accomodate the different pages and programs that needed to be represented.
the members portal
As this is an active club with several members, it was very important to create a space for all members to find the information they need.
The mindNET team set to work on coming up with the best way to deliver the information in the easiest and most efficient way possible.
In the end, it was decided that we would divy up the different topics into 4 easy to digest toggle sections with a community calendar at the bottom. We also integrated a easy to use popup system that allows us the apply informative popups to any page to keep everybody informed.
Project Achievements
Our biggest achievements with the Edmonton Rowing Club projects have to definitely be the fun and professional design, the mobile functionality and the members portal.
When building this website, we had very little feedback from the club as the majority are volunteers. It allowed for us to be a little more creative, but also added to some frustrations as later on there were some requested changes.
In the end, the website was migrated to a new web host and has seen an increase to web traffic.
All in all, this has been somewhat of a passion project of ours and we look forward to taking care of their site for years to come.
Project Achievements
Our biggest achievements with the Edmonton Rowing Club projects have to definitely be the fun and professional design, the mobile functionality and the members portal.
When building this website, we had very little feedback from the club as the majority are volunteers. It allowed for us to be a little more creative, but also added to some frustrations as later on there were some requested changes.
In the end, the website was migrated to a new web host and has seen an increase to web traffic.
All in all, this has been somewhat of a passion project of ours and we look forward to taking care of their site for years to come.
READY TO GET STARTED?
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If you feel that we would be a good fit for your next project, please complete our handy estimate form.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
THE MINDNET TEAM
