by Erik Ford with 2 comments.
We are happy to announce the launching of a successful website design and development project for Coopers Kids & The Sensory Circuit and Gym, and have to decided to share a brief case study of our partnership.
Client Background & Requests
Coopers Kids is a state of the art sensory gym located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Specializing in occupational, physical and speech therapies for children, the client requested a website that would be informational, flexible and easy to maintain: none of which they had prior to our partnership.
For functionality, Lisa and Susan requested the following:
- A content management system
- The ability to manage news updates
- The ability to manage an events calendar
Design Concept Development
Since the client’s practice involves children, we knew from the beginning we wanted to create an illustrative and clean design that would be inviting to potential visitors but not distracting. It was also important that all of the primary content was easily accessible from anywhere within the site. While creating the wireframes, it was decided the the main navigation would be pared down to essential elements only: who, what are where. This allowed for a navigational system that is not overwhelming, but can be extended using sub navigation within the site itself.
For the look and feel, we decided the site would be textured using paper and watercolor paint. We also incorporated an illustration created by Fay Leshner on the home page. For color palette, we chose earth tones based on the illustration. Lastly, for typography, we decided to mix serif and sans-serif fonts for contrast.
The Development
Because the client requested the ability to manage their own content, it was decided early on that the site would be developed on top of WordPress as the Content Management System (CMS). To extend WordPress even further, we added and customized the following plug-ins:
- NextGen Gallery for photo gallery insertion
- Contact Form 7 for contact forms
- WPListCal for event calendar management
- MapPress Google Maps
In our design mock ups, we used Museo for page titling and sidebar headers. This font is not readily available across all computers, so we opted for the sIFR 3 solution to maintain the original look and feel of the design.
The Accolades
We are always humbled by the positive reception we receive for our work and would like to thank the following design galleries for adding the Coopers Kids website to their esteemed lists:
- CSS Mania – listed a a favorite site
- The Best Designs
- We Love WP
- CSS Baker
Conclusion
We are pleased with the finished product and happy to have been able to help Coopers Kids develop an online identity. As an agency, it is our goal to empower our clients with all of the tools they will need to succeed and we feel confident we have done so for Lisa and Susan.
If you are interested in partnering with pixel8, feel free to contact us regarding your project.
Thanks, Jose. We are always on the lookout for talented people to collaborate with. Do you have a portfolio site?
I really like your work, and your site is among the best looking ones I’ve seen. I also appreciate your detailed case study because it gives more insight on what it’s like make a professional website. I know this is a long shot to ask, but I’m a student also in NYC, and would love to help out on a project with whatever I can just to gain some real world web design experience.