Nevada Humanities Adopts Content Gadget to Manage Their Website

Trinity Applied Internet recently had the honor of working with an organization that qualifies as a state treasure.  Nevada Humanities is the non-profit organization that has been bringing Chautauqua to the Truckee Meadows, and now southern Nevada as well, for more than 15 years. With seven core  programs and a substantial annual grant-making commitment, Nevada Humanities has been a part of hundreds of state events and initiatives in the humanities, arts, culture and history disciplines.  In fact, they are also the sponsoring organization and editorial body for the Online Nevada Encyclopedia, which features some of the most interesting Nevada lore and images on the web today. (Check out the “Vegas Then and Now” interactive feature.  We hear there may be some Reno/Sparks images up there soon!)

The organization makes very good use of a small number of staff, so manually updating their comprehensive website content in HTML was at best time-prohibitive, and at worst, a real pain.  Board member Edward Estipona had already provided them with a solid visual design, but keeping up with the large volume of information, applications, forms and documents, events, and new video and other media, was becoming very difficult.  Trinity Applied Internet took the existing site design and wrapped it around our Content Gadget content management system, installing tools that would allow their staff to manage documents, publish events, and even load photography into their jQuery banner, all from a secure online administrative interface.

We hope Nevada Humanities is as happy with their new website engine as we were to be working with such an esteemed organization.  Thank you, Nevada Humanities!

Announcing PDUsdirect.com

Trinity Applied Internet is proud to announce today’s launch of PDUsdirect.com.  The website is an e-commerce solution for Server Technology, a global supplier of power distribution and management equipment for data centers, headquartered in Reno.  PDU’s Direct is the first TAI-developed website to utilize a new, customized Ruby on Rails content management system, and features a robust database solution that manages a bounty of technical product information with simplicity and ease.  The site also sports online chat support, merchant gateway, shipping calculations, a custom Ruby shopping cart, and quite a few other internal bells and whistles.

TAI is excited to have been given the opportunity to develop this project for Server Technology, a company which also has been honored this week with the first Northern Nevada Technology Company of the Year Award given by NCET.   Congratulations, Server Technology, and cheers — here’s to a great response and a healthy return on investment from PDUsdirect.com!

Content Gadget 2.5 Arrives

Trinity Applied Internet has been working hard on a little gem we call Content Gadget.  (That’s the database driven application that allows a client to maintain their website content, images, user data, meta-information and keywords from their own web interface.)  While most of our clients require quite a bit of customization, we have been working on developing a standard platform that will be a solid solution for many websites.  Well, ta da! We are one giant leap closer to that with what we are calling version 2.5. (And really not that far away from 3.0 — which to us, is really exciting.)

After hearing feedback from users of content management systems as diverse as Content Gadget, Joomla!, and DotNetNuke, Keith had a ton of ideas brewing around how to make the system as easy as possible to use.   His primary concern was building all the different components (modules, tools) to be utilized intuitively.  All the elements use the same vocabulary of drop down menus and fillable fields in order to make the users’ experience consistent throughout the system.

This is especially important for those clients who also have heavy-duty applications that have been custom-built for their site.  A client could have a lot to deal with, between managing the content, culling and responding to lead gen data, and maintaining special business applications such as password protected white-papers and financial reporting.  We feel you should not have to be a qualified DBA or other IT professional to maintain and utilize your website, so we’re making it as simple and elegant as possible to learn the system.  Clients without all the custom applications should find the changes make their administration even easier.

If you have questions, ideas or comments about your CMS, give us a call.

Trinity Applied Internet Launches Nevada Immunization Coalitions Website

Ta Da!  This past September, Trinity Applied Internet completed the redesign for the Nevada Immunization Coalitions website — www.immunizenevada.org.  The launch happened to coincide with a very busy time of year for NIC, the start of the traditional school term and beginning of flu shot season.

ImmunizeNevada.org features the new version of our Content Gadget content management system. (2.0), as well as a suite of custom tools that operate News, Events, Newsletters and Publications, among other items. The organization, which provides education, resources and advocacy about immunzations for patients and medical professionals, has been working with Trinity Applied Internet since 2005.

Extra kudos are due to NIC for establishing their own Facebook page and joining the social networking community. To join their Facebook group and help provide awareness and consistent immunizations for Nevada children and adults, visit the www.immunizenevada.org website and click through the Facebook link on the right hand side.

Trinity Applied Internet’s New Website is Coming Soon

Fact: when you are a small business, there never seems to be enough time to get to everything.

Well, that’s probably true no matter how big you are.

Suffice to say, we are going to be sporting a new look to the www.trinity-ai.com very soon.  The redesign will shine us up, feature some of our new Content Gadget tools, and better reflect the philosophy and quality of our work.

We’ll keep you posted.

Is your web site accessible?

Last Tuesday October 2nd, a federal judge ordered Target to stand trial on charges that its website is not sufficiently accessible to visually-impaired shoppers. For more details on the ruling read this article in e-week.

What does this mean?

It means that marketeers and online retailers need to pay as much attention to the form and structure of thier code as they do to the look of their website.

I am not a fan of ugly websites. I understand designers who want to push the limits of website design – but websites can be unique, beautiful, functional — and ADA compliant.

The web was created to help people share information. At its most basic, the web is a series of interconnected documents. The basis of all good information is logical organization (to arrange the data), good roadmaps (to efficiently find the data), clear labels (quickly understand the data) and clear text or writing (data easily divided into parts for digestion). ADA compliancy is no different.

I am not an alarmist. Do I think that the precedent of Target being sued for ADA compliancy means that every mom and pop website needs to be worried about a lawsuit? No. Do I think a lot of other large businesses and government websites could be sued? Maybe. I do think that this ruling highlights the need for business to be aware of all audiences.

I think that ADA compliancy on the web comes almost naturally by being courteous toward your users. Why not make your information easy for everyone to use?  You’re not talking about added physical infastructure (ramps to your door, for instance), you’re talking about being smart when you architect your site and choose your solutions for images and text — the basics.

I recently got a brief glimspe of how frustrating it is navigate a visual medium with only aural narration ( not unlike blind users with a browser that reads to them). A non-technical friend of mine needed guidance through the steps of burning some digital pictures to a CD. I couldn’t see what they were seeing, I and could only rely on what he told me over the phone. This lead to some significant frustration. But my little experience would probably seem the tip of the iceberg for someone who only has that method available to buy something or look information up on the web.

There are lots of good guides for ADA compliancy on the web. A couple resources I like:

ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments

Section 508

WebAIM Checklist

Is your website going to be perfect? No. Information labeling and organization is a process – so is website development. Keep the standards in mind when considering changes and remember to be as polite as you can to all your audiences.

Raven Electronics Corporation

This week we launched a new site for Raven Electronics Corporation! I am exceptionally proud of this website. It features a clean design built on our powerful website content management system, plus a couple of interlaced website applications for organizing Raven’s diverse products and customer solutions, making this website one of my favorites.

Another great thing about this project were the people invloved. The people at Raven are experts in their field and love what they do – and the new website really will help them document those aspects of their business. It is a great feeling when we create a really exceptional website, then give it into the hands of people who will really use it and stretch its capabilities a little. Working with Trinity Applied Internet on this project were Kristy Crabtree (designer) and RBG Creative (home page Flash programmer). A huge thank you to both of them – their hard work, and awesome teamwork, shows in the final product.

Check out Raven Electronics’ new website, and if you ever need a custom piece of electronics or someone to develop a creative solution for your electronic engineering problem give them a call – you won’t be disappointed.

Nevada Opera Site Launch

We built a lush, visually appealling website for Nevada Opera that is driven by our easy-to-use content management system. The staff at the opera is able to publish and unpublish sections and pages, modify the navigation, post events and news items, and control the images in the website template.

I encourage you to visit www.nevadaopera.org and support their performance of La Cenerentola on February 9th and 11th!