Voter Study Group

The Project

The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group is doing research and analysis related to the 2016 elections. The initial reports were very extensive, and each required numerous footnotes, endnotes, figures, and appendices. The group wanted to bring these reports online, keeping them as close to their print counterparts as possible.

Solutions

We built a lean, flexible, scalable, and mobile-optimized site using Craft CMS that allowed the content editors to recreate their print reports online in a way that can be easily viewed regardless of device.

Content Relationships. Craft allowed us to easily relate various elements to one another. Report participants are related to reports, which can be related to news items, or directly to other reports. Resources can be related to participants or reports, and we’ve built in tagging and keywords to allow nearly any item to be related to anything else in anticipation of future needs.

Content Builder. We utilized Craft's Matrix field type to construct a “content builder” so the content editors could translate very long printed reports into flexible, similarly-styled entries online. No more jamming all the content one has into a single text field and hoping for the best. We built in dozens of block types and options including figures, pull-quotes, variously styled text fields, video blocks, lists, and so on. Using block types allowed us to create a dynamic table of contents for each report as well. The content editors have an exceptional amount of control over how their content appears online.

Optimization and SEO. We ensure that images are sized appropriately for mobile devices. All JS and CSS files are minified, as well as the HTML itself. Content editors have full control over the meta information for each entry, including social share images, so that their content looks as good as possible when shared on social networks.

Tracking Downloads. We utilize a custom plugin we developed (Link Vault) to protect downloadable files and to track all the downloads. A screen in the control panel allows administrators to review which files are being downloaded.

Project Management and Support. The entire project was completed on a short timeline. Keeping communication open via our project management app, as well as a Slack channel allowed us to respond and react to requests very efficiently. Ongoing support is effectively managed through our project management application.