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The Berndt Group worked with The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to create a new web site that involved implementation of the Ektron content management system.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of accredited zoos and aquariums in the areas of animal care, wildlife conservation, education and science. AZA is America's leading accrediting organization for zoos and aquariums and accredits only those institutions that have achieved rigorous standards for animal care, education, wildlife conservation and science. The Berndt Group completed an extensive twelve month Design Study project in December 2008 with AZA. This project involved extremely thorough analysis of AZA's business requirements, best practices research and development of a detailed Project Strategy and Design Brief (our recommendations for how to approach the project based on our understanding of the client's business requirements, the challenges we identified and how we would address them, etc). Once we completed that initial Discovery phase, we moved on to Information Architecture, Graphic Design, Production of HTML templates and development of Functional Requirements (a detailed document outlining all functionality on the site and our recommendations for how we would implement the site in the chosen content management system (CMS), Ektron. Challenges in the Design Study included coming up with a clear Information Architecture for the site and organizing large volumes of content (static and database-driven) into the new site architecture. Developing a compelling online graphic identity that adhered to AZA's brand standards along with the large volume of design mockups that needed to be completed (a large number of subpage variants) also presented challenges. The Functional Requirements, the last deliverable on this phase of the project, was a rigorous one month process that involved drafting the requirements document after a series of working sessions with the client to identify all functionality needs as related to the project scope, review with the client of the document and revisions, and ultimately document approval. The document included extremely detailed requirements definition, spreadsheets of taxonomies, related wireframes, content definition spreadsheets, etc. January 2009 saw the kickoff of Phase 2 of the project, the Implementation phase. We completed a month of additional Information Architecture work for additional subpage variants identified during the Functional Requirements phase and the related design and production. We then began implementation of the CMS and build out of all the functionality defined in the Functional Requirements. Last steps included content transition/integration, QA and testing, and training. The site will see a phased launch approach; the initial phase of the site launched in June 2009 and the second phase is launching in Fall 2009. The Berndt Group won an Ektron "All Star Award" for "Best Association Web Site" for its work on AZA. |
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