Just in time for holiday hope and cheer, the Charleston Elves site is live and already many children have been ‘elfed.’ After setting a great foundation from project introduction to logo redesign, detailed information architecture and site redesign, the development team got to work to put all the pieces together. I was excited to take on the last leg of an amazing project for a cause that all of us at {e} house feel passionate about supporting. Reading the stories of the Courageous Kidz, you realize that anything you can do to help support these children with cancer and their families is extremely important. Amidst the gift-crazed whirlwind that can drown out holiday cheer, the Charleston Elves provide perspective on the true meaning of the holidays.
Ease and Purpose
Our main goal with the development for Charleston Elves was to create a user-friendly website integrated with ExpressionEngine, our CMS of choice, to showcase the kids and their stories in a way that allows users to easily find families that they want to sponsor. The Charleston Elves team can also use the CMS year after year to update the Courageous Kidz and to blog about the Charleston Elves goings on through the year.
With ease of use in mind, we focused on providing accessible details about the kids stories, how to become an elf, how to donate, the gift drop-off locations, among other important information. Beginning on the home page and throughout the site, the accentuated buttons call out to ‘become an elf’ and to ‘donate,’ making it effortless to start these processes. On the internal pages, we included a sidebar to hold essential messages, which include a random sampling of facts about families who struggle through cancer, reiterating the profound effect a helping hand during the holidays can have on a family bearing the burden of cancer. Also detailed here are drop-off locations for those who cannot bring their gifts to the wrapping party on December 16th. Providing easy-to-find information throughout the site, along with making it effortless to add more important messages in the backend when needed, was key to development.
Streamlined Santa
With so many deserving kids, we wanted and needed to provide a way to easily find kids that you feel passionately about sponsoring. On the kids landing page we implemented a filtering system to view the kids in need of elves based on gender, age group, and if they have siblings. Since the system is built dynamically, we were able to provide bio pages for each Courageous Kid that tells their story and shows their family members. We also link each kid to their siblings providing a straightforward way to view a child and their family. The ‘elfing’ process was streamlined so you can now choose to elf a child or a child and their siblings directly from their bio page. Once you have verified that you have chosen to become an elf, you are emailed all the details about your child’s wish list, sizes, and where to drop off gifts.
For those who are not able to sponsor a child’s full Christmas, there is a donation option that integrates with PayPal. All the forms on the site were created with simplicity and efficiency in mind. Donations to Charleston Elves go to fulfill any wish lists of unsponsored Elves and the rest go to the Courageous Kidz foundation, so it was important to highlight this option on many places of the site.
Jolly Blogging
Finally, we implemented a blog on the new Charleston Elves website that Greg, the founder, will be updating year round in order to keep everyone informed about the Courageous Kidz and their families, what the kids have been doing throughout the year, as well as information about how to continue to help them on their journey.
The Charleston Elves was a challenging and rewarding website from the topic to development. I couldn’t be happier to have been part of this project and know that we are all so proud of how it turned out for the Charleston Elves. With the holidays quickly approaching, I go into it this year with a renewed sense of the meaning of health and happiness. Wishing you all happy holidays!!
Check out the rest of this blog series:
Redesigning the Charleston Elves (Part 1)
Redesigning the Charleston Elves (Part 2)
Redesigning the Charleston Elves (Part 3)
Redesigning the Charleston Elves (Part 4)
