Law firm Clausen Miller and college sports recruiter National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) have been honored for outstanding achievement in website development in the 2007 WebAward Competition sponsored by the International Web Marketing Association. Both sites were designed and built by Duo.
The judges called the Clausen Miller’s website “inviting and professional” and praised the “very nice design and layout” of the NCSA website. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.
Duo submitted client websites for award consideration as part of its strategy to generate internet marketing exposure for clients. The website awards also serve to recognize talented individuals at the client as well as acknowledging the team effort required to produce strong and effective websites.
Spearheading the effort for the NCSA site were Duo Consulting Project Manager Sue Kennebeck along with NCSA President & CEO Chris Krause and Systems Administrator Bobby Glass. The Clausen Miller site was orchestrated by Duo Consulting Project Manager Amy Westerling and Director of Internet Marketing Strategy Sonny Cohen, teamed with Clausen Miller Partner Melinda Kolross and Marketing Manager Erin Dickey.
More than 2,400 sites from 40 countries were evaluated in 96 industry categories during this year’s competition. The international WebAward Competition is considered the top website award program in the world.
Another successful registration for the Chicago Park
District.
Once again today we had a successful registration event for
the Chicago Park District. This was our
biggest one ever – as the summer session usually is. At peak we had over 10,000 simultaneous users
and revenue of over $100,000 per minute!
This has been a great project (and case study) on the effectiveness of a
well designed and executed AJAX
application (and significant load testing).
Because we only have these registration events quarterly, we
needed the ability to handle a huge increase in traffic without adding
additional servers (because this burst happens only four times per year). We built a lightweight AJAX application at http://programs.chicagoparkdistrict.com/programBrowser/
that allows user to browse programs and build a wish list in advance. Then, on registration day users easily move
their pre-selected programs into a shopping cart and check out quickly
(minimizing utilization of hardware or software resources). Using this approach we were able to reduce
our hardware requirements by over 50% - and service the expanding user base
with a minimal amount of infrastructure.
Congratulations to the Chicago Park District team for this
amazing and efficient application!
For years I have witnessed accolades and awards heaped on
law firm websites that are, for want of any more accurate word, dysfunctional. More
often than not these sites are eye candy with a bell here and a whistle there -
Stylish sheet metal and little under the hood.
What makes a good law firm website? I have my opinion.
Others do as well. But whatever a firm believes makes a website good should be
measurable. Hunches, hearsay and anecdotal evidence belong in the choir. Only
measurable and demonstrable metrics qualifies as the diva. My mission was
clear.
At the 2007 Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Annual
Conference on March 21, 2007, I have the opportunity to present “Checking the
Oil Level and Tire Pressure of Your Firm’s Website.” We will explore measuring traffic generation
tactics, goal-oriented behavior at the website and measuring online reputation.
I am honored to be the first to provide an in-depth review
of web analytics metrics for professional services firm. I know I don’t have
all the answers. But if we can get a conversation going about what a website
should do (and how to know), not just what it looks like, I will have advanced the
dialog.
Our next seminar in our Content Matters series, Building Functional
Websites, is October
17 at the Catalyst Ranch in Chicago, and you need to register by October 6 to get the discount rate.
In this full-day seminar, you will learn how to build, optimize and
maintain great websites that drive the business results. The morning
session reviews the fundamentals, followed by an afternoon of
interactive breakouts covering our most popular and highly-requested
topics: Information Architecture and Online Marketing.
This is a working day - expect to come away from this workshop with a
plan that will assist you and your company in launching your online
marketing project. Breakouts will be led by our team of experts, but
case studies will be provided by you. This is your opportunity to ask
questions, get feedback specific to your unique situation, and break
through the barriers that may be keeping you from taking that first
step to getting your online project off the ground.
Duo will present
the next seminar in our Content Matters series, Building Functional
Websites, on October
17 at the Catalyst Ranch in Chicago. This time, we’re changing things to include
an afternoon of interactive breakouts covering our most popular and highly-requested topics:
Information Architecture and Online Marketing. The
breakouts will be lead by our team of experts consulting on your specific issues. This is your opportunity to ask those questions that have been
lingering in your mind, and possibly hindering you from taking that first step to getting your online project off the
ground. You will walk away with a plan that you can start to implement immediately.
We’re offering the full-day for $250 ($295 after
October 6). A great deal if you consider the fact that you’re getting specific
assistance and feedback with your specific issues! We have limited space available
for these sessions - so please register today.
A legal marketing director in her
pre-Duo days, Amy Westerling knows firsthand how difficult it can be to convince
members of a law firm that the company website needs some love and attention. In
her latest whitepaper, "Selling That Website Project to Your Lawyers," Amy
outlines the winning strategies she developed to engage partners and other key
stakeholders in the process.
The internet provides an invaluable
opportunity for a firm to cross-sell their services, attract prospects and reach
potential clients. According to a survey by Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc.,
"82 percent of businesses and transactional firms have received work from their
website." Failing to prepare your website for the right visitors can lead to
missed business opportunities.
Full of sound tips straight from the
trenches, this whitepaper can help any legal professional build a case for a
website redesign. Let us know if it works for you!
This morning at 9:00 AM thousands
of Chicagoans logged on to the Chicago Park District’s website to register for
their much coveted programs for the fall season.
This season continued an upward trend with a significant increase (over 5,000 users) vs. the previous year. As a matter of fact, as of noon today over 10,000 programs
were purchased using the updated AJAX-based Program Browser
Application. The hottest sellers were Learn to Swim, Moms, Pops & Tots
Interaction and Park Kids. The top fastest program to sellout was Yoga, followed
by Dance, Aquatics and After School Programs.
Reaction to the Program Browser was
favorable. Calls to CPD on registration day seem less and less frequent as
people’s comfort with the new tool increases.
More than 2,400 programs have
already sold out, but thousands more are still available at http://programs.chicagoparkdistrict.com/programBrowser/.
Take a look and sign up for one of the great programs offered by the Chicago Park District!
Duo has just launched a refreshed design for the Chicago Park District that is as functional as it is attractive. The original
design, built in 2001, while state-of-the-art in its time, proved to be
difficult to manage and out-of-date. CPD had content that wasn’t getting to their patrons and
they needed a way to better communicate through their website. They wanted the ability to display more
information on the homepage (like a portal) to link to content housed both on
and off their site.
Because Duo had built the previous site using CSS (Cascading
Style Sheets) we were able to and efficiently integrate the new site design into
the existing content management system.
Building websites in a modular fashion allows us to make incremental
improvements to adapt to changing requirements.
The updated homepage includes scrolling pods of
information, a plethora of pictures and images, and RSS feeds allowing site visitors
to subscribe for updates to some of the park’s most valuable information. The
design refresh was a both a creative and technical challenge for the Duo team
and allowed us to use Web 2.0 coding methodologies that we plan to use for other clients.
Check out the new Chicago Park District website or read more in our case
study.
Duo is teaming up with acclaimed marketing guru David Meerman Scott for our June 1 presentation of Building Websites That Work. Along with Scott, we are offering something different this time: a two-part seminar combining his book and seminar series, Cashing In With Content, with Duo’s Building Websites That Work.
The day will consist of a morning presentation of Scott’s workshop, Cashing In With Content, with guest Duo presenter, Michael Silverman. We’ll continue in the afternoon with Building Websites That Work with Scott picking up a slot with his piece “The New Rules of PR.”
Join us for both presentations or attend either the morning session or the afternoon individually. Registration is $75/session. Lunch is provided for anyone who registers for both sessions and, as an added bonus, register by May 17 and receive a free copy of Scott’s book, “Cashing In With Content.” Click here for more information or to register in advance.
We’re proud to announce the teaming of Duo and our new client, CareerBuilder.com. Known nationally as a premier online career resource center, CareerBuilder.com recently chose Duo to provide design and strategic assistance. We’re excited about this collaboration and looking forward to working with the good people at CareerBuilder. The things that we learn during this relationship will have benefit to all of our Duo clients.
To find out more about CareerBuilder.com, visit our case study or their website: http://www.careerbuilder.com.
