Welcome to our newest client, Sea Change Foundation
By Donovan | October 18, 2007
Thank you for visiting Getting Sites Built; a web/flash/engineering agency. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
We’d like to welcome our newest client, Sea Change Foundation, to the Getting Sites Built family of custom-crafted websites.
Sea Change Foundation is dedicated to achieving meaningful social impact through leveraged philanthropy that addresses the most pressing problems facing the world today. The Foundation’s initial focus is addressing the serious threats posed by global climate change.
The site is currently being built by our team. Check back for more information… we’re just getting started.
Topics: Buzz/Press | No Comments »
AnswerLab chooses Getting Sites Built to create their new site
By Donovan | October 5, 2007
AnswerLab provides top-notch usability studies for today’s websites. Clients use AnswerLab’s detailed usability reports, based on test subject feedback, to make improvements. As experts in their field, the professionals at AnswerLab know the importance of maintaining a robust and effective web presence.
“We were impressed with Getting Sites Built’s ability to quickly understand our needs and put together a solution that worked for us. We appreciated Donovan and Canton’s flexibility and responsiveness, which made working with them a pleasure.”
Getting Sites Built was hired to upgrade and update AnswerLab’s existing website, so that it better reflected the honed AnswerLab business model. Working with a third-party designer, we re-engineered their outdated site into a web standards-based site. By facilitating a team environment, through open and detailed communication, we developed a clean-coded infrastructure during the same timeframe that the designer worked on his deliverables, the look and feel of revamped content.
The specifications called for XHTML and CSS. We used these standards to build a stable site structure, ensuring that the resulting site would validate and be well represented in a wide variety of browsers. We also crafted a site that would be simple to update by using ‘include’ files for repeating items such as the footer and various sidebar areas.
Thanks to strong project management, the new and improved website went “live” right on schedule.
We were very pleased with the positive feedback we received from AnswerLab and their in-house beta testers. Thanks to the successful project completion, Getting Sites Built was given an additional contract to turn the AnswerLab client list into a dynamic Flash component. The new website boasts featured client logos that subtly cross-fade, selected from AnswerLab’s notable Fortune 100 clientele.
Now AnswerLab has a modern website that truly represents their innovative work.
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Buzz/Press, Solutions | No Comments »
General Contractors, Inc. and Getting Sites Built
By Donovan | June 7, 2007
General Contractors, Inc. hired marketing communication experts Avantgarde to handle their marketing needs. When it came time to work on the GCI website, Avantgarde turned to Getting Sites Built.
100% Flash Solution
While many websites these days include Flash elements, few have been built entirely around Flash technology. Working from early conceptual mock-ups, Getting Sites Built created a 100% Flash-based website for GCI. The result is a stunning Flash experience. The interactive elements, like scrolling text, and thumbnail picture selection, make for an elegant website that stands apart from the crowd.
“Donovan and his team were critical in helping us develop the GCI General Contractors website. Their technical knowledge combined with their project management skills helped complete the project to perfection on time and under budget.”- Marcus Colombano, Avantgarde
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Buzz/Press | No Comments »
Give2Asia and Getting Sites Built
By Donovan | June 1, 2007
Give2Asia, an independent affiliate of The Asia Foundation, is a nonprofit organization that assists both donors and grantees in the flow of philanthropy to Asia. As their sole webmaster, Getting Sites Built has been meeting their varied web needs for the last two years. Here are some examples of the work we have done for this organization.
Topics: Buzz/Press | No Comments »
Donovan did the wonderful design.. of our website
By Donovan | May 6, 2007
“Donovan did the wonderful design and navigational system of our website and it has provided a robust platform to build upon for years since. He led us into the early days of podcasting and helped us establish thousands of listeners who might not otherwise hear us on one of the 200 radio stations that air our Making Contact peace and justice radio series.” –Lisa Rudman, Director National Radio Project /producers of Making Contact www.radioproject.org
Topics: Buzz/Press | No Comments »
Getting Sites Built. A Case Study.
By Donovan | April 28, 2007
THE ASIA FOUNDATION is a nonprofit, non-governmental, philanthropic organization that works to build a peaceful, prosperous, and open Asian-Pacific community. Getting Sites Built has developed a number of web solutions for this organization. We are also their contingency webmasters.
Here are three examples of the work that Getting Sites Built has done to address their website development needs.
Bringing the exhibit to the web
The Asia Foundation wanted a web-based version of the ‘real world’ Afghanistan Exhibit that was on display in Washington, DC.
Getting Sites Built created a custom Flash-based solution in less than three weeks. An interactive, web-based, Flash timeline now seamlessly displays the text and images from the physical exhibit.
Work Done: Research; Flash production and web staging; version detection; compatibility testing.
Creating In Asia
The Asia Foundation needed a means of sharing weekly news and information outside of the main website.
Getting Sites Built created In Asia. This separate website utilizes RSS feeds and email tools to broadcast content, while keeping the presence and feel of the parent site. Now there is an effective and easy way to disseminate weekly information.
Work Done: Research; Site installation and customization; graphics, training.
Embedding with integrity
The Asia Foundation asked us to solve a problem they were having with the existing Flash video player. The display on the interface of the gallery page only allowed for a small number of videos. The webmaster found the existing Flash-based answer too difficult and time-consuming to be useful.
Getting Sites Built created an elegant solution. We embedded the basic interface of the Flash player directly into the web page, maintaining the integrity of the presentation while addressing the root cause of the problem. It’s simple to add new videos now. The webmaster creates a new page in Dreamweaver and enters the URL to match the new video’s URL. That’s it! No need to jump through hoops just to add more video content.
Work Done: Research; Flash extraction and web staging; version detection; compatibility testing.
We build the website you’ve always wanted.
Topics: Solutions | No Comments »
Getting Sites Built… Dependable, on-time and on-budget
By Donovan | April 27, 2007
“Getting Sites Built has consistently proven to be a dependable, on-time and on-budget resource for us. Donovan and his team are always responsive and easy to work with – and they always ensure that our multi-faceted website benefits from the latest technologies, while providing creative solutions to our unique challenges that, as an international charity, come to us urgently from all over Asia.” - Katherine Brown, The Asia Foundation
Topics: Buzz/Press | No Comments »
The 2007 Web Design Survey
By Donovan | April 25, 2007
I just took the Web Design Survey that is found on A List Apart. It’s good to know that folks are compiling information like this. It should help fine-tune our understanding of the Web Professional Industry.
Topics: Other/Misc | No Comments »
Just Launched: Philanthropy Associates
By Donovan | April 17, 2007
Philanthropy Associates wanted a redesign and the ability to easily update their site without having to always depend on a webmaster. Getting Sites Built redesigned the site, giving it a fresh look and a header that pops off the page. For ease of maintenance and scalability, we built the site on the WordPress foundation and provided basic training on how to update the site.
Some of the subtle details include sidebar graphic elements that change, depending on which page of the site you are viewing. The email links are encoded to avoid spambots from harvesting them, resulting in less spam. FeedBurner handles the RSS feed so that blog subscriber results are easily tracked. Likewise, Google Analytics is installed so that basic site stats are only a click away.
Topics: Solutions | No Comments »
Just Launched: New York Skywatch
By Donovan | April 13, 2007
New York Skywatch is a WordPress powered website built and customized by Getting Sites Built. In addition to WordPress, a Gallery was also installed which will make it very easy for the site owner to upload photos.
The site was built in less than two weeks. It features nice touches like a FeedBurner RSS feed so that subscriber stats can easily be monitored. There is the Podpress plugin which will allow for easy and elegant podcasting abilities. And, as with all WordPress sites installed by Getting Sites Built, it has a ‘Reports’ plugin which allows the site administrator to quickly see a snapshot of their Google Analytics, revealing important information at a glance about site visitors.
Topics: Solutions | No Comments »