On Monday of this week, I went live with a redesign of the website of the New York Metro Chapter of the ISSA (NYMISSA). Below is a screenshot followed by a brief review of the design process:
This project got started last year when NYMISSA approached me wanting a new website with a cleaner, more-focused look emphasizing who they are, their events and their chapter news.
For the redesign, we used Justin Tadlock’s Hybrid Theme as our starting point. Then, I built a WordPress child theme which imports all of the functionality of the Hybrid Theme while allowing me to make extensive stylistic and layout customizations. This allowed me to quickly get much of the site’s look and feel complete. Finally I worked with the NYMISSA board to add and layout the site’s content.
In the end, the new NYMISSA site debuted with the following features:
- A homepage which emphasizes their upcoming events, recent news and video posts.
- An event calendar which clearly presents the pertinent details for each event.
- An “About” section which gives an overview of the organization along with lists of the NYMISSA Board and Committees.
- A Volunteer form which allows for easy online volunteer submissions.
In addition to the above, the site also has the capability for publishing specially formatted Op-Ed pieces, articles on Featured Members and posts featuring various types of multimedia. These will be added as NYMISSA generates each of these types of content.
Overall, the new NYMISSA site gives their web presences a much needed visual refresh, and it will allow them to effectively communicate their chapter’s vision for the secure and ethical use of information systems.
