Rainforest Alliance needed an effective way to illustrate their global efforts to preserve one of the earth’s most valuable resources: the environment.
Most recently impressive is the mapping project that we unexpectedly threw on Rob and Tom’s lap, and which they handled quickly and expertly.
Melissa Normann, Senior Manager, Web Strategy and Development
How we did it
Knowing that a simple page with paragraphs wouldn’t suffice, we built a map that allows the Rainforest Alliance to display data from a specific region. The user can then zoom in on those regions or look at specific data points to learn more. The map takes a large spreadsheet of geodata, created based on information from the Rainforest Alliance’s CRM, and creates an interactive map powered by CartoDB that allows users to see RA-certified organizations, and what they do.
The project took less than a month to complete, using a combination of Kanban and XP management processes.
Verité has an immense amount of data that has been collected over the last 30 years regarding labor worldwide. Internal efforts are ongoing to collect all of the hand-written and paper reports into a centralized database that can be queried and sorted. For the lay-person the data was still just numbers and figures. They needed a way to visualize the data for use by researchers, academics, and the general public.
We wanted to ensure the data was exciting to work with. Far too often, data is presented as merely tables and numbers. From the start we wanted to tell a story about the data, so together with Verité, LCM crafted a question-and-answer-based approach to displaying the data with creative charting and mapping elements built to place emphasis on the results of the data.
The site’s functionality continues to be expanded as data is collected with additional visualizations and database connectors to provide real-time data for global results.
In the midst of sorting massive amounts of data for the National Census of Writing, Jill Gladstein of the Swarthmore College English Department called on Last Call Media to create a usable web data explorer for use by the general public and qualified researchers alike. Survey data was collected from respondents from over 900 higher education institutions. Census questions gathered data about curricular, administrative, and support structures of writing programs in the United States from March 2013 to October 2014.
How we did it
Census data is extremely important for the Higher Ed community, but the information is only as good as it is accessible. Working closely with the Swarthmore staff, LCM pinpointed what information was the most critical and sought after by administrators and researchers viewing the data. Graphs were designed to optimally visualize survey question responses and search functionality created to easily explore by survey question, institution type and related filters.
The first iteration of the site launched in time for Swarthmore to unveil its functionality at the Council of Writing Program Administrators 2015 Conference to great praise. The site, in addition to the program’s work, has gone on to be featured in Inside Higher Ed being utilized by the general public, researchers and higher education institutions all over the country and is 508 compliant.
The Census is being utilized in ways we never expected.
Jill Gladstein, Swarthmore College English Department
NTEN approached Last Call Media to develop a comprehensive look and feel for their 2017 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC). NTEN works to create a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions, and the conference is their signature annual event for engaging and energizing their membership.
How we did it
LCM understood that the event primarily focuses on building relationships and reconnecting with friends in a collaborative and collegial environment.
Each NTC event centers around a thematic approach reflected in a unified communications materials from registration and information online, to signage and collateral planned for the specific location. After several potential directions were presented, they chose a ‘state fair’ approach that was nostalgic, without camp, for the Washington, DC conference.
Proposed Logos & Designs
Last Call Media developed the necessary assets to support every platform, and developed a style approach to guide NTEN staff and collateral vendors.
Last Call Media kicked off our relationship with HIAS, the oldest international migration and refugee resettlement agency in the U.S., with a Design and Development Audit. We’ve used our findings from that task to inform strategies and recommendations for both immediate goals and long term projects.
LCM has been assisting HIAS with site-wide User Experience and Design improvements, with services including card sorting exercises, site navigation strategy, and overall recommendations and prototyping.
Additionally, we’ve provided new feature development, such as adding Events listing and browsing capabilities.
We also provide ongoing support to maintain their existing Drupal, WordPress, and other PHP web systems.
All College Storage had an idea for a brand new online business. They wanted students from a university to be able to schedule the pickup, storage, and delivery of their dorm items over the summer. Items would be picked up at the students old dorm, then delivered to the new dorm at a requested date and time.
In addition to a full branding treatment, we developed a solution for students to reserve and configure when and where their items would be picked up and delivered.
An iPad point of sale interface was also developed for employees to process payment for each customer during pickup time as well as to manage all business workflow. All College Storage soon became the premier moving and storage solution for students in Western Mass.
The business was a success from day one, soon expanding from five colleges to eleven colleges and four prep schools, and it continues to succeed and expand.
Following this model, LCM assisted All College Inc. in replicating the successes with All College Storage to another startup for laundry service, called All College Laundry.
FITiST is a fitness and lifestyle business that sells a single membership valid at all gyms in a city. The database needed to compile a schedule of all FiTiST-affiliated classes, provide tokens for customer registration, and charge a recurring fee for the membership.
We developed an eCommerce solution that compiles classes from from FITiST-connected gyms into a member-facing scheduling interface, as well as a recurring token payment system to handle class registration purchases.
FITiST became a success in NYC and soon expanded its operation to LA with plans for five more cities to follow.
An upgrade to increased conversions, better sales, and more flexibility.
Competitive Advantage was experiencing a decline in their online sales. Their existing website was outdated and originally built as hundreds of static HTML pages, some inconsistent with the others. Additionally, the main site was originally laid over top of an aging proprietary eCommerce solution that wasn’t serving their needs or their customers well.
We worked with Competitive Advantage to update the design of their website, port it to the most current version of Drupal, and migrate away from their former eCommerce system to Commerce. Improvements to the checkout workflow were implemented, product images were updated, and full content control was given to Competitive Advantage to maintain product copy.
Since the transition, Competitive Advantage has seen their eCommerce sales far exceed their expectations and more than double in volume from their previous site.
We truly appreciate everything you have done for us.
LEEDuser helps you get your building projectLEED certified with tips, checklists, sample documentation, forums, and more. All of these features, and the community that uses them, run on the Drupal platform. LEEDuser needed ongoing assistance, planning, and implementation of new features for its community.
To enhance the value to the community, we developed and implemented several enhancements. Our focus centered around adjustments to the logic behind the forum posts and replies. Our work included a more intuitive nesting and notification system, as well as new voting and ranking logic to better surface posts of value to community members. Effort was also dedicated to improving the pathways and user experience, guiding them to the desired conversations.
The people at LCM are professional, personable, and available whenever we needed them.
The Technology Transfer Office (TTO) at the University of Massachusetts was seeking a total rebrand. They needed to divorce themselves from a department image that had become stale and tired. They replaced a large portion of their staff, brought in new fresh ideas and leadership, and wanted to demonstrate their successful internal restructuring through a bold new website.
We were hired to build a new corporate identity package including logos, branding, a slogan, and a website.
Launching later that fall, we successfully captured the spirit of the restructured department and brought forward their mission to help inventors, artists, and forward-thinkers to access patents, copyrights, protections, and most importantly, attention to their creations.
I’m impressed with the clean look, bold photos and functional organization. The mobile version is especially cool, and is really usable.
Robert MacWright, Director, Technology Transfer Office, University of Massachusetts Amherst
