As one of the globe’s most iconic and visited destinations Times Square attracts millions of visitors a year. However it also has a vibrant community of over 230,000 ‘locals’ who have made the area their home or place of work. To serve this vibrant community The Times Square Alliance partnered with I-SITE to create a mobile App for their Crossroads program. The goal of Crossroads is to offer exclusive deals and discounts for local businesses, provide special insight on the area and promote events tailored to residents and workers.
For quick access to content and features the I-SITE team proposed an easy to navigate architecture with three primary content area – Deals, Events and Insider. As an added feature the user can select which area is most of interest to them and customize the App to load that content first. For the Alliance to publish important timely content the I-SITE team proposed an Alerts feature visible each time the user opens the App. It was determined during that up to the minute social and feature content would be published through the upcoming redesign of the Times Square website rather than the App.
Some of the key features of the Crossroads App include:
- Program sign up validated by a Times Square zip code
- Clean, attractive interface with strong visuals and Crossroads program branding
- Deal redemption through a screen shown during purchase at selected restaurant, store, theatre etc
- Deal Favoriting and Save for Later features
- Social sharing
- Tracking and content management through Salesforce
- Deployment on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile
During the planning phase the I-SITE team developed user flows, wireframes and a data management plan for the written and visual content housed in Salesforce. The I-SITE team designed the screen interfaces for the highest degree of standardization across the three platforms. All development was native on the each of the selected platforms.
The Alliance team will be responsible daily for the updating of the content for the App. I-SITE will provide ongoing support and design and development for future releases.
The Painted Bride Arts Center turned to the I-SITE team to partner on an innovative community arts and culture project that makes visible the “unspoken” and seemingly invisible archives of cultural memory in Philadelphia’s rich and diverse past. Funded by Pew Charitable Trusts Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia called upon artists/thinkers Reggie Wilson, Faustin Linyekula, and Marty Pottenger to weave a critical dialogue and conversation within and around their work.
For the online program Painted Bride challenged I-SITE to find innovative ways to report on the artists’ work and also encourage communities and the public to use their smartphones and tablets to share their stories and insights while on the move.
All the site content, whether a bio, video or photograph, is in the form of a field note that is displayed on the home page and can be submitted by the public as well as the artists/thinkers, Free Radicals aka advisors King Britt, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Brenda Dixon Gottschild, and the Painted Bride team. The field notes can be filtered by tags, author keyword and time period therefore creating a rich and interactive archive that will remain online as a resource after the completion of the 18-month project.
The website built on Drupal 7, is fully responsive and uses Isotope and Masonry libraries to sort and filter interactively with the varying media formats and content published on the site. Post launch the I-SITE team continues to support the website with additional content and features.
The I-SITE team continued its long-term love affair with New York with the redesign of the Downtown Alliance’s website for visitors, residents and businesses.
With an extensive set of features, listings and content for multiple audiences, the I-SITE team collaborated closely with Alliance staff on mapping out a new architecture and features set that would deliver a greatly improved experience to site visitors looking for both information and inspiration.
The fully responsive design is rich in vibrant photography that helps communicate the ongoing revitalization of Lower Manhattan for live, work and play. New customized mapping and search tools were developed to deliver easy access to listings and events on mobile devices as well as desktop computers.
Key features of the new site include:
- Custom searchable maps for locating restaurants, hotels, events and much more.
- Full event list calendar with category filtering and maps.
- New My Visit Planner for saving events and listings to share with friends and family.
- Video testimonials from a host of industry leaders talking about the benefit of locating In Lower Manhattan.
- Improved social Media integration for Twitter and Instagram.
Post-launch the I-SITE team suppported the website, working closely with the Alliance on adding new features and enhancements.
William Penn Foundation, a family foundation with its roots firmly planted in Philadelphia, turned to I-SITE to create a fresh new website to clearly and elegantly communicate its philanthropic mission to the region’s community of innovators and grant seekers.
Established over 70 years ago by Otto and Phoebe Haas the foundation is focused on three program areas; helping improve education for low-income children; ensuring a sustainable environment; and fostering creative communities that enhance civic life and advance philanthropy in the Greater Philadelphia region.
The I-SITE team first reached out to the community to gain insight on what the previous grantees seek most in the Foundation’s website. Coupled with insight from the highly experienced Foundation staff, the team was able to develop a more streamlined site structure with clear call-to-actions. The subsequent wireframe prototypes allowed the team to test the effectiveness of the new approach.
For the design there was strong directive to create an elegant design that is both contemporary but also rooted in the strength and heritage of the Foundation’s brand. I-SITE partnered with award-winning designer Andee Mazzocco of Saygrid on the creative direction of the website. Having previously completed a number of projects for the Foundation, Andee brought extensive knowledge of their programs and design guidelines.
Built on the Drupal CMS platform the website is fully responsive and integrates both video and the full database of grants awarded since 2013. The What We’re Learning section also allows filtering by year and program area.
Since launch in summer 2015 the website has been well received both by the community at large and by the staff as a tool to disseminate information and educate and prequalify potential grantees.
The I-SITE team continues to offer support to the Foundation both for additional features and strategic direction.
On a mission to make a difference by combining their passions for natural, built, and human environments, Philadelphia and Berkeley architects Re:Vision sparked our imaginations when they approached us to design a new website for their firm.
The goal was to develop a fully responsive site for desktop and mobile that demonstrates Re:Vision’s deep understanding of sustainability, design and function. The website serves many audiences including other architects, engineers, community leaders and commercial and residential customers. The focal point of the website is Re:Vision’s impressive portfolio of work. I-SITE developed a custom ‘Build Your Portfolio’ feature for users to assemble and review select projects of interest.
Andee Mazzocco of Sendgrid brought her extensive experience designing informational and marketing programs for architects by collaborating on the concept development and design execution. The team’s goal was to create a functional and elegant responsive design that clearly communicates Re:Vision’s work and expertise.
The site also includes employee profiles and a Blog with articles in a number of different categories including Green Architecture, LEED/Rating Systems and Community Engagement.
Built on WordPress the website launched in May 2014 and has already been recognized with a 2014 Interactive Media Award for Best in Class in the Architecture/Interior Design category.
In 2013 I-SITE teamed up with the Great Apes Survival Partnership [GRASP] headquartered at the United Nations in Nairobi, Kenya to create a mobile application that will draw on the rich and diverse content of the leaders in ape conservation. The App available both for Android and iPhone features bonobos, gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans facts along with current projects being run by the partners in the field. Previewed at the Great Apes Summit in Fall 2013, The app launched in mid-February featuring projects from the African Wildlife Foundation, The Orangutan Conservancy, The Goualougo Triangle Ape Project and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
With rich infographics, photography and video Great Ape lovers can now follow projects they are interested in and donate directly to the project partners. Post launch the GRASP team will manage the content through a custom CMS and continue to add partners and projects to the App.
I-SITE follows the success of iGorilla, the first mobile application dedicated the the conservation of Great Apes.
In early 2013 the I-SITE developed and launched the Android version of the free Downtown NYC smartphone app, which is the latest in a series of web and mobile applications created for our client, the Alliance for Downtown New York. The application was first developed as an iOS app for iPhones and iPads. I-SITE previously launched the downtownny.com website in the spring of 2011.
The app was created for tourists, residents and workers in Lower Manhattan to to find events on an integrated Google map, share the events and locations via social media, and add events to their calendar apps on their mobile devices.
The Android app’s interface is very similar to the iOS version, but customized for Android. Both apps utilize an easy-to-use, clean interface to enable the user to, in seconds, find events and locations that interest them. Downtown Alliance staff can easily add events and other data to the application through the same CMS interface as they use to manage the website content and iPhone app.
The I-SITE team bolstered the movement to make schools a healthier place with the design and development of a website for the National Dairy Council and National Football League. The goal of the website was to enroll and support thousands of educators providing access to activities, tools and resources that help their students to engage actively in the national Fuel Up to Play 60 program.
Once registered educators were able to track the progress of their schools and students through personalized dashboards and by following six clear steps for the Fuel Up to Play 60 program. To motivate educators and students the site includes digital rewards that are downloaded once certain tasks have been completed.
Key features of the site include:
- Personalized dashboards with message center
- Interactive Playbook with over 60 activities
- Interactive Timeline for the six steps
- Digital Rewards for meeting program goals
- Video integration with SchoolTube
Post launch the I-SITE team supported the website prior to a full transition to the National Dairy Council team.
In 2013 Hidden City Philadelphia approached I-SITE to design and develop a website and web application for their site-specific Festival. The goal was to develop and engage a passionate community of festival supporters and participants inspired by a ‘kickstarter’ community-driven model.
Phase I of the website was focused on promoting the Hidden City sites, the artists and their projects. Festival supporters were able to create user accounts and donate not only money but the valuable volunteer time and project materials that are vital to seeing artist project through to fruition. The I-SITE team selected Ruby on Rails for the CMS and website because it is a clean and efficient web framework for building robust web applications.
The next phase of the project involved addition of Events features and ticketing through project partner Ticket Leap.
For more information on this project and if your interested in creating something similar for your organization contact Ian Cross.
