When starting a new website project, one of the most important early steps is to identify the star of the show. What will take center stage on your site? Will it be products, people, or a brand? In many cases, it’s content – things like articles, images, videos, blogs, and interactive features. A good example of a content-friendly web solution is Blayzer’s recent redesign for St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles magazine. Not only did the website turn out exceptionally well, but the project allowed us to flex our metaphorical muscles across nearly all departments in our shop (strategy, design, and development).
St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles, a local magazine publication, came to Blayzer through a web search for experts in their particular content management system (CMS), Drupal. They were seeking assistance with their website, which is intended to serve as an “interactive online magazine” that showcases the publication’s ever-changing visual content. The top three priorities for this project had to do with friendliness: mobile-friendly, content-friendly, and user-friendly. Specifically, the old site wasn’t optimized for mobile visitors; content wouldn’t update in real-time; and navigation was disorganized.
Upon investigation, we discovered that these problems all linked back to one core issue: the Drupal web solution was out of date. This is a common occurrence in our era of fast-paced technology advancement. Near the end of a website’s life cycle, there comes a point where there is just no more option of “fixing” the site with a little “patch” here and there. Even the best websites with lots of vigilant upkeep will eventually reach this point. When this happens, the only option is a complete solution overhaul; a ground-up rebuild. This was the case with St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles. They needed a fresh, new, content-friendly web solution.
Blayzer went to work.
We tackled the problem piece by piece, starting with a clean and elegant design that lets St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles’ stunning photographic content shine. Our developers then built the website in the latest version of Drupal and created custom features specifically for the magazine.
These collaborative changes include:
- A unique home page with customizable rows that pull information from other areas of the site via the content database
- A custom image view function for the galleries section
- Social media buttons and feeds integrated throughout the site for easy flow of users between site and social
- A “Find an Expert” feature to connect users with industry professionals
- An on-site blog to optimize the organization and searchability of articles and content
- A custom administrator panel allowing the client to efficiently add and organize content
When Blayzer was finished, St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles received an interactive, modernized website that is fully content-friendly, along with training of how to use the new site. For a more in depth perspective on how we created the publication’s website update, check out the full case study.
Contact us to see what Blayzer can do to make your website more content-friendly.
