Sometimes, a new website is not really a choice

When the Albion Chamber of Commerce could no longer make updates to their website, the choice was easy: Launch a new one!

Catchy Creations LLC was delighted to help! The Albion Chamber's website had been created on a platform provided by Yahoo for small businesses. Sometime in 2017, Verizon purchased Yahoo for $4.5 billion. When the transaction closed in the second half of 2021, Verizon not only moved all of the Yahoo-hosted websites to their own servers, they also announced that support for editing those sites would end on March 31, 2022.

Alas, the Chamber recognized it really had no choice but to start over. Our proposal was accepted in spring 2022 and a new site went live in late June. Our goals:

1. Establish design and messaging consistency.

2. Create an online presence that tells the Albion Chamber of Commerce story and encourages engagement.

3. Generate connections through online interactions to grow an email list of contacts.

4. Boost traffic and new customer visits through SEO and email marketing.

The tasks at hand included:

• Design a new logo and branding color palette

• Transferring existing content

• Editing and adding relevant new content, based on our discretion

• Creating a new member directory using dynamic data

• Providing a user interface for the chamber to add/edit blog posts

• Enhance user engagement overall with forms and other elements

• Enhance mobile user interface with updated features and elements

The old site

The "old" site was not responsive; viewing even on a large desktop screen revealed some very tiny type and small images with no options to enlarge. The site was not mobile friendly.

The existing member directory interface was limiting. Members appeared under categories, but searching for a member business by the name was not possible. Contacts for community resources such as government, schools, and churches were found in the member directory, even though many are not members.

These design limitations were based entirely on the lack of options provided by the simple Yahoo website building editor. Chamber leaders were excited to see the updates made possible by designing a new site using Wix.com, selected for its affordability and advanced features. The new site provides, in addition to an entirely new look and feel, many new features:

The responsive new site features a new logo and branding that pays homage to the Town of Albion's logo and downtown wayfinding signs, but offers a fresh and independent brand for the Albion Chamber. Animations and scroll features provide a fresh, interesting experience to users.

Using dynamic content, which can easily be updated by a volunteer, the member directory is sure to remain up to date and makes it easy for users to locate members, by name (All Members button) or by category (drop-down filter). Among new member services is the option to buy or renew memberships online, as well as update the information on their member profile page.

The dropdown menu allows the member to see what currently appears in the directory. If changes are needed, the button links to a submission form to provide updates. (Updates do not go live until the website administrator makes them.)

Brand new content to help those new to the community has also been developed, connecting with links out to several other local websites. Creating links back and forth between websites helps both sites gain a higher result in searches online. The ability for Catchy Creations LLC to provide editorial updates is made possible by living and working locally for over 50 years! Local companies and organizations place their trust in me over developers who lack any first-hand knowledge of our community.

What I was most excited about for the Chamber, as a result of this project, is the annual cost savings to be recognized by this local non-profit organization. Rather than paying $23.99 per month for hosting services, with no options to update content or design, out-of-pocket costs have been reduced to just $13 per month for a brand new, engaging website that can remain up to date and evolve with Wix.

I look forward to supporting the Chamber in the months and years ahead to help ensure they get the greatest results possible through their digital presence. It was a blast to complete this worthy project!

Albion Chamber of Commerce

Raising the bar for Albion Parks & Recreation

As a lifelong resident of Albion, Indiana, I was quite excited and honored to launch Albion Park Department's first website in March 2022.

One of the driving forces for Casey Myers, Park Superintendent, to have a stand-alone website was the growing number of people from outside of Albion using Hidden Diamonds Park. This premier, 89-acre park offers some of the region's best (and free) recreational opportunities, including an 18-hole disc golf course, splash pad, and trails that wind through beautiful, natural areas.

Prior to the launch of a new website, patrons likely found some basic facts listed on a page within the Town of Albion's website:

It was difficult, however, to find the kinds of details many might seek before committing to a commute.

A municipal website serves a very specific purpose: to distribute information to citizens. In this case, the vision Myers had for promoting Albion's parks as a "destination" required something more. I began the project by gleaning as much information as I could about park features, amenities, fees, and public engagement. I asked Myers a litany of questions, the kind patrons most likely ask when they are looking to camp, rent a pavilion, or find programs and services available. This drove the basic navigation for the new website, created on Wix.

The development of inner pages of the website relied upon use of dynamic data. By building tables of data for lists of parks, features, and amenities, I was able to provide a front-page filter to help patrons navigate to whatever it is they are looking to "do". When they select an activity and click the button, they are immediately delivered to the park that provides the activity they seek.

Each inner page provides a deeper level of detail about each park and the most popular and sought-after activities.

Navigation was the most important need Myers relayed to me, so the entire website is made to be user-friendly, providing options to use a search bar that floats on every page, a simple "I want to" interactive lookup on the home page, and a bold, fixed top menu bar. The site is responsive, and mobile navigation is also easy.

This project will continue over the next year as electronic forms have been introduced in this first phase. More "bells and whistles" are envisioned for the future, based on patron and town staff feedback.

What a pleasure this project was! Kudos to Myers for his excellent use of Facebook to keep the public informed and to celebrate the many ways citizens enjoy the parks. The imagery was one part of this project made much easier for the ability to grab and use dozens of photos previously shared on social media.

Albion Parks

New website powers Windmill Museum's marketing efforts

As a long-time supporter of local tourism and a past president of Visit Noble County, I have been a champion of efforts to market Noble County's many, extraordinary tourism assets for decades. Among those assets is the Mid-American Windmill Museum in Kendallville. When I ran into a museum volunteer while working on another local website project, I grew pretty exited about the prospects of helping the museum create a new, modern presence on the internet.

Sure enough, just a few weeks after our impromptu meeting, I received a formal request to submit a proposal for a new site for the museum. This project promised an opportunity to fix the display of images, an issue that resulted from upgrading the "old" website to operate with an SSL certificate. I had seen this issue occur on other sites, but did not expect to find that the content of this site was (still) being managed in a challenging and somewhat archaic way - manually, using raw HTML code in the site's file management system.

In 2022, in my opinion, no one should be expected to maintain a website's content without a modern, user-friendly front-end editor. Clearly, the museum's directors understood this and were quick to accept an affordable solution offered by Catchy Creations. Not only would a new website (in this case, using Wix) give a fresh look and feel to prospective visitors, it would also provide countless other updates resulting in an attractive, modern, interactive site for the museum to promote, raise money, and serve visitors.

The museum's website, before the relaunch, was only displaying its images if the user specified https:// in the URL. This indicated the site's SSL Certificate installation did not include necessary changes to the directory path for images. Though this "before" screenshot does not illustrate this issue, just imagine that where you see an image on the web page you would only see this placeholder instead:

The museum was also excited about the prospect of providing a responsive website. The existing site, still operating on the old platform, looked like this on a mobile device:

So let's look at the new website home page:

Visitors will enjoy the ease of viewing the new site on mobile devices:

In addition to improving the site's responsiveness, we also incorporated digital forms. Now, enthusiasts can apply to volunteer, send donations, and become members of the supporting organization safely, electronically, and instantly! (We used Wufoo forms, integrated with the museum's Square account, to accomplish these upgrades.)

Lastly, we recognized an opportunity to offer a more engaging, interactive look at the 52 windmills that make the museum a destination for wind wheel and history enthusiasts. The simple website table looked like this before relaunch:

The new site, using dynamic content (easily managed from a dashboard accessible to designated volunteers at the museum) allows visitors to see (and enlarge) images and even search the database for specific manufacturer models:

Working on this project was truly a privilege and satisfied my desire to support a local non-profit that has done great work to enhance quality of life and boost tourism and our local economy. I hope you'll find their new website easy to use as you plan your next visit!

Windmill Museum website