One of these recent projects has been a new website for the Northern California bankruptcy law firm, Younger and Hennecke LLP.  Known well across Northern and Central California for their expertise, Younger and Hennecke LLP had previously utilized a colleague's website for their contact information, but with their business' growth and expansion over the last couple years, that option had run its course.

When we initially sat down to discuss their needs, it became clear that they were interested in establishing a new website that would have two primary focuses.  The new design would need to effectively draw in new clientele as well as function as a centralized hub for communication with existing clients.

With regard to the business promotion aspect, YH wisely chose to invest in their website as a means of acquiring new clients rather than dumping their marketing budget into the phone book and other expensive old media outlets.  In accordance, we focused on creating a clean, inviting aesthetic and optimizing it for search engine performance.

With respect to design, the color choices borrowed from their current marketing material and expanded upon their existing logo.  The blue, white, and orange raised above the grey background create a crisp pallet for the user to quickly move their eye across and find the information they need.  The YH logo is used prominently throughout the site to help establish the brand and the orange color accent color is used sparingly to highlight the most important points of navigation.  When creating a site for a business in this industry, the website has a fairly limited amount of time to make its impression, highlight important information, and call new visitors to action.  Therefore each aspect of the design represents a key part  of  a very deliberate strategy.

Moving deeper into the site, the office locations section was tied into google maps api to create an interactive experience for finding the nearest office and downloading driving directions.  An important call to action has been overlaid transparently atop what looks like a picture of a google map. Upon closer inspection however, the user quickly realizes that it is a functional google map that they can zoom to an manipulate to instantly get the information that they need.  Although, not groundbreaking, the little touches such as this are where you engage the customer and establish a level of comfort.

As you cruise further into the site, you'll notice that key information is consistently easy for the user to find and access.  Additionally, there is either a call to action or an email form on every page in its own subtle way.  Therefore, there is always a simple way for the user to contact the firm and request more information or make an appointment.

We've worked carefully to build a website that draws users in, maintains an elegant flow, and initiates a conversation and we truly feel that YH has now added another strong business tool to their already capable arsenal.

This first set of deliverables is classified  as a mini launch because the immediate requirements were to establish a new and relevant logo, assign a landing page to their domain, establish a quick way for customers to make contact, and convey the company image/purpose. Although a relatively small task when compared to our  larger project launches, this was a fun and engaging piece to work on. To view it, Click Here.

What had originally been set up for the chamber years ago had over time lost functionality and fallen out of style.  As a result it was no longer a destination that chamber members were drawn to.

After sitting down with chamber CEO Jane Daley and taking careful time to gather employee feedback, clear goals were defined for the new site and a vision was in place. The chamber website needed to be a tool to draw in new members, target the younger entrepreneurs in their 20's and 30's that the previous site had been missing, and function as the primary spot for local business members to promote themselves and form partnerships with their peers. Aside from just pure functionality, the website would would really need to be a catalyst for member activity.

From the design perspective, we chose a bold palette to work with of deep red and burgundy to draw in the eye and included a number of accents to convey depth. The site presents a very clean and intuitive design to draw the reader in, allow them maintain focus, and find the information they are looking for quickly. The site does all this while maintaining a continuity of style across all pages.

Functionally, the site has built in a robust number of features without becoming cumbersome. RanchoCordova.org allows its users to: Search for local businesses, advertise their own business, find local business/community information, thumb through the event calendar, find new ways to get involved in the community, contact the chamber, provides a gateway to the chamber's social network accounts.

From a platform perspective, we built the the new chamber design on top of the Joomla content management system, with the integration Chamber Nation software, and a customized theme. This would ensure that the site would be a living, breathing resource that the chamber could maintain with minimal effort, that they could tie in with their promotional social network accounts, and have enjoy maximum functionality.

Overall, the new chamber site was an exciting project that has already created a drastic impact on the local chamber community. If you have a project similar to this site, contact us. We'd be very interested in going over your ideas and working with you.