Five Technology MN » Five Client

Providing a Communication Link for K12: The Delano School District Website

Jason Landa — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:24:45 +0000

Schools have an overwhelming amount of academic and administrative information to provide parents and students. Five Technology can help your school district put all of that information in one easy-to-access place.

Five Technology’s website for the Delano School District provides an easy, effective communication link between their parents, students, teachers, and administration. Your district can benefit from this same convenient communication link customized to your specific needs.

Easy to Navigate

Any information users need is easily found in one of the site’s clear categories.

Main Categories: From any page on the site, users can access the main categories of District, High School, Middle School, Elementary School, Activities, and Community Education instead of using the back button or needing to return to the home page and start over. For example, a parent can choose the main category High School to get to a specific teacher page and then go directly from the teacher’s page to information about a recent school board meeting under the main category District.
School and Classroom Pages: Each school and classroom has a page with its own specific announcements. Classroom pages allow students and parents to see assignments, course topics, schedules, grading scales, and more.
Teacher Profile Pages: Teachers’ pages provide a teacher’s contact information; links to each class they teach; and additional links such as parent information, class schedules, homework, and assignments.

Protected Information

Your district can customize pages for each school. Also, schools have control of all content. Parents must subscribe and students must log in to access information about individual class schedules and so forth. The site complies with FERPA regulations.

Convenient and Time-saving

The user-friendly organization of the website saves time for both parents and students who need information and the school staff who provides that information.

Facebook-like functionality: The website is easy to navigate because elements of it work like facebook, which most users are familiar with. Classroom and teacher pages are similar to facebook profile pages, and teachers can make posts on pages like a newsfeed. The bonus is that you avoid actually putting your information on facebook, and instead have your own website controlled by you.
Parent Subscribe: Parents can subscribe to have all posts from their child’s classes sent to their email address so they don’t have to search the sight each day to see if new information is posted.
Student Log-in: Each student has a log-in. When they click “My Classes” at the top of the page, they see a list of their classes so they don’t have to spend time searching for each class. Also, students can download worksheets and turn in homework for assignments posted to a classroom page.

Helpful Showcase for Your Community and Schools

People considering a move to your area can research the benefits of your community on a professional, well-organized site. Users see the highlights of your schools and can find enrollment information. Parents can see how your schools would suit their child.

Improved Communication and So Much More

This is just an overview of what Five Technology’s website can do for your school district. We will work with you to meet your district’s specific needs while providing a site that allows your teachers, parents, and students to communicate effectively and efficiently.

Screen Captures

Please don’t hesitate to navigate delano.k12.mn.us and see first hand how the Delano staff members are using these great online tools to communicate classroom activity. Below are a few screen captures of important functions mentioned above.

Use the mega navigation to navigate to any page with one click:

A classroom page that is effectively being used to communicate with parents:

A sneak peek at the teacher administration process and sample categories:

Web Design Project: Whole Cottonseed for Cotton Incorporated

Jason Landa — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:31:08 +0000

Our latest web design project was built to communicate the benefits of whole cottonseed for dairy cows. The project was a microsite for Cotton Incorporated and involved working with the great team at Harvest PR.

A Website With A Message
The fun part about a microsite is the focused message. Cotton Incorporated needed to reach dairy farmers with the benefits of feeding whole cottonseed to their herds in new ways online. The website is filled with valuable information on WCS facts, feeding, storage, pricing and more.

We built a custom WordPress blog as whole cottonseed news delivery feature that allows for the posting of news, press releases and video updates.

The website also features information on WCS dealers so that dairy farmers can locate where to get pricing information and buy product.

Components Of The Web Design Project
For a microsite, we still packed in a bunch of great features into this project.

Web design
Custom jQuery JavaScript slideshow
Content management with the SMC
Custom WordPress blog/news feature
Video player
Integrated Twitter feed
Custom contest entry forms
Dealer locator
Media and resources
Email marketing opt-in

We’re looking forward to further work with Harvest PR and Cotton Incorporated to achieve macro results.

Visit the website: http://www.wholecottonseed.com/

Web Design Project: Excel Mechanical

Jason Landa — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:32:48 +0000

Five’s latest web design project is for Excel Mechanical, a Twin Cities plumbing and mechanical services company located in Watertown, MN. Excel came to Five looking to renew their brand, redesign their website and focus on improving content and search engine rankings.

A New Logo Design
Here is the refreshed logo for Excel Mechanical.

Website Redesign
The website redesign focused on communicating the experience and professionalism that Excel offers to their clients. Their plumbing services are well outlined on the new website and speak to their capabilities and offering for residential and commercial projects.

An addition to the website was providing a project gallery to show their work. Users can see their abilities in a master bathroom remodel or help a commercial contractor see that Excel can handle a large medical facility project.

Custom Blog Design
Excel had realized that business blogging and creating content is a great strategy for a small business well before they sought us out. The only issue was that Excel was using a free Blogger site to post content, thus missing out on almost all of the brand and search engine benefits that a blog provides.

Five integrated a WordPress blog into their new web design and then imported their past Blogger posts into the new blog. Excel is already adding great new posts highlighting their product lines and knowledge on the Ask The Plumber blog.

We’re pleased with every aspect of this project and have enjoyed that Excel’s owner and staff “get” what’s needed to succeed online. Lastly, we helped Excel move to a .com domain (from a .us) that makes their marketing a lot easier.

Visit Website: http://www.excelmech.com

Great Web Design & SEO Bring Exposure, Not Just Leads

Jason Landa — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:25:19 +0000

The efforts and investment in your business having a well designed website that ranks well on Google, Bing and other search engines is mostly geared at generating leads and new business. Consider that you also get a bleed of other benefits when your web design is solid and your site has search engine credibility.

4 Quarters Design & Build is a Five Tech client that witnessed this bleed first hand. Their recently redesigned website earned them the opportunity to take part in a TV news story and gain valuable offline exposure for their business.

A recent deck collapse in the Twin Cities led the WCCO reporter to find a deck construction expert to contribute to their story. A quick search on Google by the TV reporter and he had his expert, 4 Quarters owner Brian Jacobson.

Building Credibility
It’s easy to see that the key to a successful website and online marketing is credibility. The right look and feel, helpful content and other elements all contribute to your website being viewed as a trusted resource. That resource might be needed by a search engine or by a TV reporter, either way the benefits can be numerous.

Congrats to 4 Quarters and Brian on the air time, can we get your autograph?

Web Design Project: Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. Accounting Firm

Jason Landa — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:53:13 +0000

The latest web design project from Five Technology is for the accounting and cpa firm of Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. located in Buffalo and Waconia, Minnesota.

Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. provides accounting and tax services to businesses, non-profits and individuals. Their old website was just a handful of pages in a stale accounting industry template. The new website is clearly organized with multiple routes of navigation to find what you’re looking for.

The firm also offers a robust range of business consulting services. JMP + Co. has offices in two cities to the west of the Twin Cities, located in Buffalo and Waconia. We made sure to offer clear information and integrated Google maps on both office locations within the header, footer and office pages to make working with them easy.

A Web Design To Avoid The Norm

When working with firm partner and CPA Casey Mattson, it was clear that JMP + Co. was not the standard CPA firm. Our first goal was to drive home the people, personality and engagement level you’ll find with them. Getting the staff front and center with the “We are people people” statement felt like a great fit. We had fun taking the photo and also creating this clean and well organized web design.

Recap Of This Web Design Project

Custom web design
Photography
Content management with the SMC
Search engine optimization
Local search and customer reviews
Enhanced location pages
Custom tax blog
Internet marketing consulting

The Johnson Mattson Peterson + Co. web design project is a great web design and website if we say so ourselves. Five didn’t deliver the “normal accounting” website and that was the point. Who wants to look the same as everyone else when you’re not?

Visit the website: http://www.jmpcpas.com

Web Design Project: Simonson’s Salon & Spa

Jason Landa — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:01:26 +0000

There is never anything wrong with creating something beautiful, especially for a business that is all about it. Our latest web design project released is for Simonson’s Salon & Spa. Adding to the fun was the co-agency efforts of Spyder Trap Online Marketing working with Five to produce the website.

A Web Design With Style & Simplicity
During the early project discussions it was clear that we wanted to bring a stronger style to the Simonson’s website. Finding the balance between elegance and approachable was important.

Simplicity was a driving factor to make the website easier to use all around. Clear navigation, focused services, content areas and new features combined to make the website easy to interact with for the user.

Simonson’s also is engaging with customers on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. You’ll notice the emphasis we put into letting website visitors know they can further connect with Simonson’s via social media.

Location, Location, Location
It’s no secret that the goal is getting customers in the door. We put a strong focus on the Simonson’s four locations by making it the first item left in the main navigation, prominent footer information (see below) and the detailed page of each location.

Below is the website footer that displays a photo, phone and address of each location on every page. These are also clickable to the location detail page.

The location detail page, like this one below for Plymouth, features the address, contact information, photo gallery, online appointments, store hours, interactive Google map and other helpful links.

Finding the Right Stylist or Technician
Simonson’s has an experienced and talented staff and knows that their people make the biggest difference. We created an easy to use search and filter tool for users to find the right stylist or technician for their needs. If you’re looking for a stylist, specializing in red hair in Maple Grove, you’ll find it!

Recap of This Web Design Project
As you can see from the details above on a few features, a lot went into this web redesign in both form and function. Here are a few more areas to hit upon in closing that we engaged in:

Custom web design
Content management with the SMC
Custom blog design
Search engine optimization & local search
Salon & Spa Team search filter
Enhanced location pages
First time guest feature to market to new customers
Online gift card purchase
Online store integration
Online appointment integration
Prominent social media channel placement

We enjoyed the web design project, the great team collaborating together and the final outcome.

Check it out: http://www.simonsons.com

Five Technology Client Appears On WCCO-TV

Jason Landa — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:46:43 +0000

Rear Window Media, a Five Technology client was featured on WCCO news for their mobile digital advertising service. While the story played to the “controversial” angle of vehicles displaying ads, we’re excited for our client’s exposure of their unique advertising service.

WCCO doesn’t offer a video embed, click here for the video.

Five Technology worked with Rear Window Media’s President Jessica Netter and created both the web design and an extensive web application that runs the Rear Window advertising management. Rear Window clients can manage ad rotations, budget and track their advertising with GPS mapping right from an online account. We’ll post more on the Rear Window Project in a future blog post.

How valuable for an advertiser to know exactly what spot on Interstate 94 or what block in downtown Minneapolis their ad was displayed? Sounds like smarter marketing to me.

Check out the video, you’ll see the Five Technology logo in a few shots as we have some ads on their network.

Regardless of the service being controversial or not, Rear Window has seen a significant spike in both drivers wanting to use the service and advertisers for their network since the story aired. Any publicity is often good publicity, no matter how the story is spun.

Congrats Rear Window! http://www.rearwindowmedia.com

Web Design Project: Ranchline Network

Jason Landa — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:12:33 +0000

Sometimes you have to go bigger, the Ranchline Network web design project is an example of that. The Ranchline brand has 4 other websites on our web platform and I have worked with them for years, including on their logo design.

Ranchline Network is a national real estate listing website, focusing on high-end land and ranches for sale. The website features hundreds of listings from brokers and agents all across the US and even Internationally.

Ranchline was founded by real estate broker Paul Taylor III who has achieved incredible success in the industry. Paul and the Ranchline team saw a great opportunity to bring their marketing and Internet success to others in the Real Estate industry as a tool for them to market their properties and homes for sale as well.

Ranchline Network – A Better Website
At the core of the Ranchline Network website is a focus on making real estate research easy for the consumer. The website offers the ability for a user to create an account to save properties and searches. The layout is clean and offers clear navigation in multiple formats for any user to find their desired property. These include:

Type Navigation like Ranches For Sale, Land For Sale & Waterfront For Sale
By State Navigation like Montana For Sale, New Mexico For Sale, Texas For Sale
Search filters for land type, location, price range, listing ID# or keyword
Visual map search with listing population numbers by state (see below)

In moving through the real estate listings users are presented with both strong visuals, clear navigation and over property details. Once into an exact listing the page consists of a variety of images, content, details, maps and more.

Content Management System To The Extreme
Our web platform is extremely flexible, scalable and capable of some great custom features. This project offered us the chance to program some great features for the updating and adding of listings. The back-end offers a great feature and tool set including:

Online creation of client accounts
Online payment of one-time advertising & membership fees
Uploading of listings, data, photos, video and more
Listing statistics for agents to view stats on searches, impressions, views, clicks & contacts
XML feed capabilities to automate listing population & updating process

Overall Website Project Details
The Ranchline Network project was a very expansive project and the client is not engaged in online marketing strategies with Five as well. As an overview, the web design project involved:

Custom web design
Content management system integration
User accounts and agent accounts
E-commerce & merchant account
Multiple search & filter features
Banner ad network
Photo gallery features
Google maps
Various XML data feeds
Search engine optimization
Pay per click marketing
Web analytics

Check it all out for yourself, we’re proud to work with Ranchline as part of their team and business success.

Visit the website: http://www.ranchlinenetwork.com

Non-Profit Web Design Project Lets Five Give Back

Jason Landa — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:33:22 +0000

One of our latest web design projects was 100% donated by the Five Technology staff to a local non-profit in Wright County.

The Community Health Foundation of Wright County was in need of a better web design and platform to communicate their projects and causes, events and how to get involved.

In addition to the redesign of the website, it now runs on a content management system allowing the CHF to easily update and grow their web presence themselves. The ability to add information and photos from their events and projects gives the CHF stronger communication with the communities they serve.

Five Technology is happy to launch this new website, not only powered by great web technology, but a giving employee spirit. Five has donated over $15,000 in projects the last 2 years to local non-profits including causes supporting breast cancer patients and local food shelves.

New Community Health Foundation Website: http://www.chfwc.org

Web Design Project: Concrete Treatments

Jason Landa — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:17:43 +0000

The web design is now dry and it’s time to announce the release of the new Concrete Treatments website. Concrete Treatments, Inc. is a Minnesota company specializing in polished, terrazzo and decorative concrete floors.

CTI does some amazing things with concrete floors for both commercial and residential clients. From large retail to a modern kitchen, they can handle your concrete flooring needs. The client hired Five to improve the visual impact of their website as well as its search engine visibility. They will even be dropping some solid knowledge on their concrete blog in the future.

This web design project involved:

Custom web design
Built on the SMC for content management
Project photo gallery
Custom blog design
Search engine optimization
Content structure

Both the client and Five are excited to release this new web design. If this design and coding work has “floored” you, maybe it’s time you holler at our Minnesota Web Design firm to go to work for you.