The Filipino American Association of Wisconsin (FAAWIS) needed a new website. They were losing their webmaster, and the site needed not only a fresh look but the ability to be updated easily. President Sheila Plaga Jackson called me with her criteria. 1)It needed to look fresher with better organization while keeping important pages such as the list of Presidents. 2) It had to be easily updated by herself or other members of the organization and by either a Mac or PC. 3) She wanted more emphasis on events. Here are my solutions:

1) I copied all the files, text and images and organized all the pages under nine headings. I created a drop-down menu that can easily add more sub pages. I created a new header with their volcano logo and images. Green and purple were the colors requested so I picked two vibrant colors that went well together. I wanted to add a touch of something Filipino so for the background I added a lace texture that reflects the traditional Filipino apparel (you can see it in the shirts they're wearing in the image on the home page). Ms. Jackson also requested that it match their newsletter, so I created three columns for the text and added a colored sidebar similar to what the newsletter has. 

Here is the website before.

Here is the website after.

2) I knew that building the website with the Yola sitebuilder would be the best solution for making it easy to update and accessible. Since it is an online software, Yola provides access to anyone with an Internet connection whether on a Mac or a PC. Text and images can be easily added and changed without knowing code. Since FAAWIS elects a new President every year, with Yola the transition will be smooth. 

3) To advertise events on the website, I created a slideshow for the home page. Each slide has a picture and description of the event with a link to a specific page for each event. I left the dates off the slides so that the slideshow can be used each year without changing it, although slides can be changed or added if needed. I also created a colored sidebar advertising each event which can easily be updated by typing in the text box. 

Ms. Jackson was pleased with the results and other members of FAAWIS have complimented the new website as well. Members are using the site more and membership in the association has increased as well. The most recent event, a picnic, had almost 600 attendees. Ms. Jackson has seen an increase in emails from other states and countries from people who are interested in the association.