You are here: Home / Archives for Case Study

Photographer’s Adventure Club – A Case Study

March 26, 2013 By 1 Comment

photocrati-case-study

Nicholas Pappagallo Jr is a photographer originally from New Jersey, now residing in Arizona. He was on a mission to optimize a website and photography club he runs called the Photographer’s Adventure Club. The website, blog and event section was to be transformed into a branded design.

In this case study, you will see what was happening in the original website, what the goals were for the new website and how the Photocrati theme filled the gap that Nicholas needed.

Original Website

The original Photographer’s Adventure Club website is a custom-built site from one of the club members. For a blog, TypePad was being used. It worked, but unfortunately did not match the look of the main website. The meetup page is a separate event calendar, using the Meetup system and also did not match or fit with the main site.

photocrati-case-study-photo-adventure-club-001

The front page of Photographer’s Adventure Club

As you can see, the main website is big and beautiful, showing off some beautiful photographs. Clicking on the “About Us” page (below) brings a two-column style page with clean typography and a gray color scheme, drawing your attention to the content and photograph.

photocrati-case-study-photo-adventure-club-002

Single page design of Photographer’s Adventure Club

The Meetup page, while keeping with the color scheme, did not flow with the main site. The typography was different and the layout was not similar in any way.

photocrati-case-study-photo-adventure-club-003

Meetup page for Photographer’s Adventure Club

The TypePad blog for the club did not match the color scheme or layout as well. But that was going to change with the redesign.

photocrati-case-study-photo-adventure-club-004

Typepad page for Photographer’s Adventure Club

Picking A WordPress Theme

The most important features for picking a WordPress photography theme

  • Clean looking
  • Easy to use
  • Easy to customize
  • Professional
  • Match current website theme

The goal(s) of the website redesign

To have easier to navigate site – currently everything was separate, website, blog & calendar … now they will all be in one place and a better user interface than before!

New Website

When deciding on a theme, Nicholas researched possible WordPress photography themes and came to a decision, picking the Photocrati theme for the new blog. After installing the theme, some customization needed to be done in order to match the width, color scheme and unique menu structure of the main site.

photocrati-case-study-photo-adventure-club-005

The new Photographer’s Adventure Club blog

The Photocrati support team was happy to lend a hand and after some theme option changes, custom CSS and adding the club’s logo, the blog looks very similar to the main site.

WordPress has a TypePad importer that made the transition of blog articles very easy. The tool doesn’t import images, so those had to be done manually.

The only thing left was to tackle the events section, in order to replace Meetup. After additional research, Nicholas decided on Events+ as the new event management tool and Membership for subscription levels.. Like the Photocrati theme, Events+ was able to be branded to match the look of the main site. The site is also using the NextGEN WordPress gallery plugin to enable galleries for events with the ability for attendees can upload.  In addition, BBPress was used to add a community forum to the website.

Conclusion

The Photocrati theme was able to resolve the problems that Nicholas had with his the Photographer’s Adventure Club, mainly the lack of branding between site, blog and events. With a customizable WordPress theme, and two additional plugins to add additional functionality, the new website is complete and live.

It was fun seeing the process from start to finish and we’re happy to share this club with the photography community. Nicholas is slowly converting future events to the new website so check out the site and be a part of some fun events.

Thanks for reading,
Scott

Filed Under: Case Study Tagged With: , ,

Getty Photographer Ezra Shaw’s Website – A Case Study

July 16, 2012 By 5 Comments

photocrati-case-study

ezra-shawEzra Shaw is a sports photojournalist and has been a staff photographer with Getty Images for years. His work has brought him around the world to photograph the Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, Tour de France and so many other amazing events.

Although Ezra’s photography is truly magnificent, his website was not to his liking. We spoke with Ezra’s team to see how the Photocrati WordPress theme could help change that.

In this case study, you will see what was happening in the original website, what the goals were for the new website and how the Photocrati theme now shows off Ezra’s amazing photographs as it should.

Original Website

Originally Ezra’s website was flash based, but an increasing amount of its website traffic was coming from iPads and iPhones. In addition, Ezra did not have the ability to manage his own content on the site.

ezra-shaw-flash-site

Ezra’s flash website prior to Photocrati

Furthermore, although flash can provide the ability to create amazing animation, it provides very little SEO benefit. In addition, a flash based website has the ability to prohibit a photographer from showing off their photographs with the impact that a portfolio website should.

All these factors led to the decision to seek a new website design.

Look at the two screenshots above. Notice the size of the menu compared to the rest of the page? The layout for the portfolio in Ezra’s flash website was awkward and small. The numbers above the photograph should have been thumbnails instead. The play button is nice for the slideshow, but it’s still small. The full screen button does enlarge the photograph, but for some reason, it also opens other pop-up windows. Unfortunately the Olympics and Stories pages worked the same way.

ezra-shaw-empty-space

Ezra’s flash page of empty space

This one is not uncommon for flash websites. Notice all the empty space to the right of Ezra’s biography? That will not exist when Ezra’s website is redesigned.

Picking A WordPress Theme

The most important features for picking a WordPress photography theme

  • Bug-free
  • Solid customer support
  • Ease of use
  • Attractive design.

The goal(s) of the website redesign

To present the photographer’s work simply and quickly.

New Website

With Photocrati to the rescue, Ezra was able to clear up both of the problems on his list and fulfill the requirements for a WordPress theme.

ezra-shaw-photocrati-homepage

Ezra’s new Photocrati home page

Meet the new home page for Getty Photographer, Ezra Shaw. It has the same color scheme as his original site which helps for branding purposes. But the nameplate is new — in keeping with the new design. The menu is large and at the top where it should be. The main gallery is big, vibrant and best of all, java based. Utilizing java and html instead of flash will let search engines crawl the ALT tagged images, which will increase SEO and traffic.

ezra-shaw-portfolio

Ezra’s new Photocrati portfolio

Now Ezra’s portfolio page shows off his stunning photographs as thumbnails instead of numbers. They load fast and can easily be modified and re-arranged thanks to the Photocrati gallery management system.

To top it off, a visitor can now click on a thumbnail to bring up a Lightbox/Java driven modal window of the enlarged photograph. This modal feature will also work on iPads and iPhones.

ezra-shaw-modal

Ezra’s new Lightbox window

Depending on the size of the uploaded photograph, the Photocrati theme will automatically fit the photo to the browser size. So if an extra-large photograph is uploaded, then an extra-large photograph will display on a big screen. What I mean is, this specific photo takes up the entire screen on my 23″ monitor. That is a big photograph!

How the Photocrati theme helped since launching the new website

Ezra’s father — web developer and designer Kip Shaw — developed the site for Ezra.

“Photocrati has just the right mix of features, control, and options to quickly build a custom website. As a web developer and photographer, I want to help other photographers who might not have the time nor the skill set to build a website, yet do need to have control over content once the website is built. Photocrati is a WordPress theme that does this job well.”

“What a transformation. Getty Photographer, Ezra Shaw, moved to the @Photocrati WordPress theme” Click To Tweet

Conclusion

The Photocrati theme was able to resolve the problems that Ezra Shaw had with his website and also complete his list of requirements for a WordPress photography theme. It is always nice to hear a story of a happy customers, but it’s really fun to experience the decision process and redesign.

Ezra is busy getting ready to go off to the Olympics in London, but if anyone wants to contact Kip to learn more about this project, email him at info(at)clearlight7.com.

Thanks for reading,
Scott

Filed Under: Case Study Tagged With: , ,