On February 14, 2017 | By Maryellen Lazzaro | Clients, Design, Editorial, Extended Care, Hot Off the Press, Partners, Project Management, Websites
Hot Off the Press: New Website for The Silvercrest Center
Goodbye, old website. You were created by a developer, and you were 40+ pages of a muddled mess that lacked a clear message and unifying look.
Hello, new website! You are fresh, clean and modern, like the printed materials Lazzaro Designs produced in 2016. You set Silvercrest apart from its post-acute care competition.
Here’s how we did it.
Our first step was to prepare the site map. With our editorial collaborators, we gathered the many pages and reorganized and consolidated the content into major categories and sub-categories, resulting in an easily managed 12 pages. The organization was outlined by a site map that indicated which page would link to what other page.
Then we made decisions about various considerations that would continue to improve the user’s experience. For example, we determined that the header would be “sticky,” meaning it doesn’t move while the user is scrolling on a desktop, laptop or tablet. In this way, the two key phone numbers placed in the header are accessible at all times.
All these essential steps were done before a word was written or Maryellen designed a page. Once we got the green light from the client on the site map, Lazzaro Designs got to work on that.
Voice: Copy was written to complement the print materials already produced and to immediately provide the user with an approachable vehicle to learn about the facility and its mission, as well as to access its breadth of services. The writer determined what would be the main headers (H1s) and the subheads (H2s) to break up the blocks of copy. In some cases, the writer created “accordion-style” content, pages of mini sections that just show the subheads and click open to reveal the rest of the narrative if the user so desires. This way the user doesn’t have to plow through a long scroll to get to only what she is interested in. The writer also edited various blog entries that were written by key staff members and put in place blog categories and tags to further improve the user’s experience.
Vision: Unlike printed material, designing a website means to think in modular sections that will resize and reposition for the user’s device. For Silvercrest, the first step Maryellen did was select a one-deck logo treatment. This let the name read cleanly regardless of the user’s device. She made many more decisions, as well, from web fonts to color palette, however, only two page formats needed to be designed—the homepage and an interior page. Maryellen then created the art for the supporting ‘learn more’ buttons, and limited the amount of photos used throughout the site’s main pages. Iconic images were culled from Silvercrest’s archives, supplemented with a few stock images. A few new photos were taken to round out the assets featured on the site.
Getting it done: Once Silvercrest approved each page’s layout, including the copy, images and how the site would function with links, Lazzaro Designs researched web developers who could translate our work. Silvercrest chose Chroma Sites from our recommendations. Maryellen oversaw the work prepared by Chroma Sites and served as a liaison between The Silvercrest Center and the developer. The entire process, starting with the development of the site map to going live, took under five months.
Check out the print materials Lazzaro Designs produced thus far for Silvercrest, all which beautifully complement the website: Family brochures. Clinician brochures. Patient handbook. Transit ads. Q&A trifolds.
> If you need help creating or updating your website, give Lazzaro Designs a call or shoot us an email.
