Five Technology is excited to announce the release of the new website for the Mental Health Association of Minnesota (MHAM).  This non-profit was the state’s first mental health advocacy and education organization founded in 1939.

MHAM works to meet the needs of the mental health community, respond to those needs, and work to make positive changes in the lives of individuals and in public policy.  The organization had utilized a web presence for the past 10 years, but the old website lacked many features and usability.

This Non-profit Web Design Project Included:

• Custom web design based on their new logo & colors
• SMC platform for full website content management
• Blog component for news & updates from MHAM
• Improved content structure & usability
• Search engine friendly design & search engine optimization
• User account management for interactive & communication features
• Discussion board integration
• 3rd Party donation solution

One of MHAM’s biggest desires was to create an easy to use interface/account for their community to interact with each other and become aware of the organization’s offerings.  Five created myMHAM and gave users the ability to easily create an account that allows them to interact on the message board, comment on mental health blog posts, select email list inclusions and receive the MHAM newsletter (mailed).

We’re excited about the new web design, the platform and the website features we put together in working with the MHAM staff.  We have no doubt that this new marketing and communication tool will contribute to their continued success and work within the mental health community.

• http://www.mentalhealthmn.org

Five Technology is excited to announce the launch of TheHuntingAuthority.com web project.  This hunting community website combined a great web design interface with a ton of features.

Bringing Social Interaction To The Duck Blind
The guys behind The Hunting Authority came to us with the goal of being the best website an avid hunter and outdoors person could find.  Great design, great content, great features and most of all, a voice for the hunter.

We jumped at the challenge to build user profiles so that visitors to the site could create their own profile and interact with each other.

Here are some of the social features we built into the website:

• Account creation with screen name
• Ability to add/edit a bio
• Ability to designate hunting interests, areas and the ability to search other members with similar interests
• Status area to announce what you’re up to
• Bulletin board to leave comments on other members profiles
• Photo gallery to add your own hunting photos
• Ability to embed YouTube or other 3rd party video players
• Ability to write your own blog articles and comment/respond
• Ability to rate and review guides, outfitters and gear
• Ability to show your favorite web links

We packed a ton of great interaction and community tools into the initial launch of the website and already have more features slated as the website takes off.  We built out all of these features on our content management platform.

Hunting Blog
The site features a hunting blog that already is packed with great hunting info, wild game recipes, dog training tips and more.

Setting up a custom blog design isn’t a big deal for us, but the fact we integrated the profile account creation and log-in with the blog was pretty great.  This made the user profile creation just a single log-in for the site and simplified their ability to comment on blog articles.  It’s nice to have your CMS and WordPress play together so nicely, for everyone’s benefits.

Guides & Gear: Give Your Review
Once registered, the website users have the ability to add, rate and review outfitters, hunting guides and the hunting gear they use to hunt with. Users can search for hunting guides and outfitters by searching states or Canadian provinces and then view detailed information.

Working Footer
Lately we have voiced our thoughts on website footers being important.  On this website we put both first, second and even some deeper levels of links and pages into the footer.  You’ll see more of this as we feel its a great usability feature.

Success In The Crosshairs
As you can see, this web design project was no small creation.  The website has many more features than what we touched on here.  If you are a hunter, we encourage you to check out TheHuntingAuthority.com and create a profile. We enjoyed the challenge of the project and look forward to continuing to build out more great features.

We can vouch that these guys are dedicated to having the best hunting website on the Interweb.  Great content, great features and giving those with the passion and knowledge a voice; that’s what The Hunting Authority is about.

– Post written by Five Technology web programmer Brad Greenwald

During the last decade, millions of websites were released year after year.  In a great trend for all involved, user experience became the dominant focus. Social media is now skyrocketing in nearly every sector for every audience. Websites are now being used on mobile phones and devices. Desktop applications are interacting with websites. Businesses are integrating a large amount of their operations into web-based platforms.

The trend in web design during the last decade resembles that of the 1960s and 70s in the advertising industry, often referred to as “The Golden Age of Advertising”. A time when great, original ideas were continuously rolling off the tables at agencies, and new technologies had enabled conceptual wizards to push the envelope with out-of-the-box ideas. Like then, we have had agencies and individuals all over the world pushing the envelope for the last decade to make the internet the best it can be.

Has anyone considered we may be in the golden age of web design? Some observations I have on this are below:

• Larger companies are re-investing in great design and technology regularly to retain and attract users. Smaller companies are biting off as much website as they can chew when facing overhauls and brand updates. Most companies are representing a growing interest in SEO, analytics, social media, marketing strategies and usability.
• Advancement of web application technologies – Web 2.0 methodology and technologies have swept the premium web marketplace and is here to stay.
• A threshold in interactive web design. While interactive & animation technologies continue heavy development, the majority of websites stay relatively limited with those features – particularly utilizing Adobe Flash, embedded video and JavaScript frameworks lightly.
• There has been an unprecedented drop in the releases of base website languages. From 1995 to 2001 there were 6 official version releases of HTML in 5 1/2 years. From 1996 to 1998 two versions of CSS were released. Now we stand around 10 years later with the next generations of each still pending – which are XHTML 2.0,  CSS 3, and XHTML/HTML 5.0.

Summing it all up:
Utilizing the tools we have today, web designers and developers have not required major advancements in technology to pump out robust, user-oriented, interactive websites. As much as anything, the ideas and approach has evolved.

The marketplace has also shifted to deliver stronger websites to smaller businesses at lower costs. In addition many businesses are going green and utilizing web technologies as cost-efficient marketing channels. Wikipedia is now the local library for many average citizens; Facebook, the schoolyard; Google, the everything.

We know it will continue to get better from here, but what I’m getting at is where we may be on the web technology curve.

Sounds like the golden age of web design to me.

While there is no specific rule of thumb in web design for when you should redesign your website, there are many factors that signal it is time to revamp things. I addressed this topic in our August e-letter and decided to post it to our blog as well.

Are you in need of a website redesign? Here are some points that might be telling you it’s time.

+ Time
If you want to consider timeframe as one rule, an industry average is every 2 to 4 years. Design evolves, your competitors improve their website, your brand grows and you need to keep things fresh. If you haven’t touched the visual interface of your site in 5 years, please seek help!

+ Functionality & Features
Many companies are looking to add features and better functions to their website. This is a perfect time to give the site a fresh coat of paint as well as roll out new tools. It might be the need to move to a content management system or to integrate specific functions like e-commerce or user profile accounts. Whatever the technical need is, a redesign can be more than just a visual touch-up.

+ Usability Issues
Some sites lack an easy to use navigation structure or have simply become larger than they were designed for. A redesign can incorporate an improved structure, utilize drop down navigation and other elements to make the site easier to use and convert more business. I’m always amazed, but there are still so many sites out there with random navigation features on every page. Yikes!

+ Search Engine Optimization
If you are lacking traffic from Google and Yahoo, then a redesign combined with proper coding and content structure can help. A site designed the right way and coded the right way can attract search engine traffic the right way.

+ Drab, Boring, Unprofessional
Sure this one is obvious. Just plain looking better is a great reason. Many websites are too basic as they were built to get something “up and out there”, have gone untouched for years and they have become old news. A redesign can freshen up your look, brand you apart from your competitors and show your dedication to future success and more. There are so many incredible web design and layout techniques we can employ in today’s world of web design to make you stand out!

The best part is while just one reason above may be driving your website redesign needs, you can address multiple deficiencies or challenges during your redesign. This can allow you to get more value and bang for the buck. If you are wanting a few more signals on when to redesign this post has 11 Signs on time for a website redesign.

We recently launched our 2nd donated non-profit website (see the 1st) for 2008, this time for the Lynnda Laubach Breast Cancer Awareness Ride.  This growing event offers a day of fun while raising money for the Cancer Center at Regions Hospital.  The main event is the 100 mile motorcycle ride and the evening ends with two LIVE bands and a pizza dinner in Rogers, MN.

The 4th annual event is on September 20th and you can see all of the details on the website.  Five Technology is very proud to be included as a sponsor for our web design work for the event and wish everyone a great time while supporting a great cause.

Visit the event website:  http://www.thebreastcancerride.org