The Bateman Foundation is a wide-ranging organization in Victoria, BC that operates the Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting educational programs related to the environment and nature-inspired art for children. Caorda had previously worked with the Bateman Foundation on their Nature Sketch program and website and was delighted to help with the redesign of their main website.
The Challenge
The Bateman Foundation had new branding, a new name, and new programs, but the website was stuck in the past. The existing site was based on an aging and difficult-to-maintain WordPress theme. Even seemingly simple things – like updating plugins or WordPress core – often caused major issues, thus, it was time for a significant update. The site had multiple functions, including an e-commerce store with 300+ products, newsletter signups, event registration and ticketing, membership functionality and donation collection; all of these would need to be migrated over and improved upon in the new site. Along with the functional and structural improvements, the site needed to do a better job of showcasing one of Canada’s premier artists. It was a big site – and a big challenge – but one for which the team at Caorda was more than ready.
Our Solution
The first phase for Caorda was to develop a thorough project plan and migration strategy. The team broke down the Bateman Foundation’s requirements and created a strategy to handle each aspect: the e-commerce would continue to be handled by WooCommerce; donations, the newsletter and membership would use integrated Keela forms (a non-profit CRM); the events and exhibit functionality would require a rebuild with a customized integration of the Events Calendar; workshop registration and venue rentals would be handled by Gravity Forms with Stripe payment processing integration.
Once the plan was set, the design team at Caorda worked to create a great new look. Fortunately, Robert Bateman’s art provided great inspiration, and Caorda utilized his work wherever possible to improve the visual experience. The designers also integrated a strong connection with nature by using clean simple fonts, lines and layouts to create a great design that will last for years to come.
So far, Caorda has seen a great response from website users, and observable metrics – including increased interaction through the shop, form submissions, and event registrations – is improved.
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