For more than a hundred years the Canadian Lung Association (CLA) has been dedicated to promoting and improving lung health for all Canadians.
The CLA’s relationship with RealDecoy began when the Association chose us to work on a site for the Canadian Respiratory Health Guidelines. Even before that project was finished, the CLA asked RealDecoy to develop the National Health Framework website.
The CLA had standardized national respiratory health guidelines it wanted to post to the web—but there was nowhere to put them on its own site. RealDecoy won a request for proposal to create a new site. At the request of the Association we partnered with Atomic Motion, an Ottawa web design firm, who would provide the graphic design for the site.
THE CHALLENGE
The CLA’s existing site did not have the capabilities to effectively present all of the respiratory guidelines information.
Making updating easy
The CLA needed a site that was easy to maintain and update, and that would be easy to expand in the future. It also required a Content Management System (CMS) that would be easy to use and versatile. What’s more, the project had a relatively small budget so the solution needed to be as cost-effective as possible.
Finding the right Content Management System
Due to the tight timelines and specific requirements of the Respiratory Health Guidelines website, choosing the right technical approach was vital. This required an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of both open source CMSs such as Drupal and OpenCMS, and alternate proprietary options such as Macromedia (now Adobe) Contribute.
OUR SOLUTION
RealDecoy developed a site for the CLA’s health guidelines that met its immediate needs and accounted for future content additions.
Joining forces with the creative team
RealDecoy met with the Atomic Motion design team to establish a working relationship and ensure our processes were aligned for the benefit of the CLA. Working with the CLA, we planned the site and developed an information architecture and wireframes that were subsequently provided to the designers. This helped Atomic Motion skin the site while respecting both the business needs of the CLA and the technical requirements of the site itself.
Throughout the project RealDecoy met with the CLA to affirm understanding of the Association’s needs as well as visitor requirements of the site.
Doing the site with Drupal
After an in-depth planning and discovery exercise, RealDecoy planned the site and chose Drupal for the CMS. Drupal was well suited to the relatively small scale of the site, and allowed our team to take advantage of existing modules, limiting the amount of customization needed. We were also able to leverage some dynamic elements to use content from one source to populate multiple areas of the site.
RealDecoy worked with the CLA to structure and organize its content for effective use on the web.
A solution for the long term
The site we developed took into account that new guidelines and content would be needed in the future. The navigation and structure were designed to allow for flexibility and growth. The completed site provides the CLA with a template for future guideline sites.
The CLA engaged RealDecoy to design, plan and implement a research tool that would allow them to post findings online and promote excellent respiratory health information for all Canadians.
THE CHALLENGE
The CLA wanted to build a website, within a short timeline, that would exist outside its own national website and would provide information on lung health and the CLA’s lung health framework. The site had to have its own distinct look and feel and be made available in English and French (20 pages of content in each language).
OUR SOLUTION
RealDecoy developed a cost-effective website with a Drupal CMS giving the CLA the ability to easily manage its content online and add new information as necessary. We also took care of content migration: the CLA provided us with the content and we placed it into the Drupal environment.
What’s more, RealDecoy looked after all aspects of building the site, from project management and planning to project design to deployment. We were constantly in communication with the CLA, gathering feedback on the design and user interface to ensure the site would be easy to use by the general public. We also tended to accessibility issues to ensure a wide variety of users would be able to access the site.
