ResPublica launches new Drupal website, built by PRWD
We’ve been very busy recently on a number of different projects, but one of our major site build projects has been for ResPublica, a new public policy think tank headed by Phillip Blond. ResPublica is a rapidly-growing organisation that has been in the political limelight recently as many of their key ideas have been adopted by the Conservative opposition, widely expected to form the next government after next year’s election. They wanted a new website that helps to build awareness of their brand and of their ideas.
To build the site, we used a range of tools and techniques. On the technical side, we used the Drupal content management system to power the site. With our past expertise in Drupal development, this was a smooth process that resulted in a very powerful, flexible site delivered quickly and to budget. For the design and usability, we made use of Axure RP to produce an interactive prototype that was invaluable in resolving design issues and speeding up the implementation phase.
Design process
In keeping with our focus on usability, we placed a considerable emphasis on simple, usable and logical navigation in the site design. We evaluated and benchmarked several competitor websites, developing a clear idea of the target audience for the site. Initial designs were sketched on paper, later revisions were created and improved in Photoshop and ultimately an interactive prototype was created using Axure RP. This interactive, clickable prototype strongly resembles the finished site and enabled us to demonstrate the concepts, design and scope of the site before a single line of code had been written.
Site Features
The site is built to enable the publishing of a wide range of content produced by and about ResPublica – articles and publications from ResPublica staff, press coverage (including video) from media organisations, blog posts from staff and guest bloggers, as well as events, projects, people and job vacancies. All of these are fully content-managed, enabling ResPublica staff to update the site regularly as required.
Integration with Twitter is also provided, enabling content creators to automatically send out tweets via the official ResPublica Twitter account whenever new content is added to the site.
Advanced Google Analytics features are also supported, including tracking of Site Search, events including downloads of PDF files and the sending of e-mails, and Goals to track signups to the ResPublica newsletter. We’re big advocates of Google Analytics and it’s great to be able to use it to track engagement levels across a dynamic content-driven site like this. If you’re interested in Google Analytics, you can read about some of our relevant services here.
Site Build
The site was built using Drupal, and a variety of contributed and custom-developed modules. If you’re interested in reading more about this aspect of the site, you can read the case study on Drupal.org.
ResPublica Official Launch
Although the site has been up and running for several weeks now, ResPublica are holding their official launch today, November 26th, and we’ve just opened up some new areas of the site, including a blog which will feature a range of guest contributors.
We’re looking forward to attending the event, which will feature speeches by Phillip Blond and David Cameron. If you’re interested in following the latest news from ResPublica, you can follow them on Twitter here or see their blog here.
