National Center on School Infrastructure

As a new organization, NCSI was in need of a clear, inspiring visual identity and a custom WordPress solution to establish their digital presence. Because they operate as a national resource hub, they required a platform that would enable them to share timely content and tools with diverse education stakeholders, including a centralized way to organize and present materials. The goal of our work was to define NCSI’s identity, craft accessible and intuitive UX, and build a flexible website that supports ongoing updates and content growth in support of the organization’s mission.

Working closely with the NCSI team, we delivered full website design and development, along with identity design to bring their new organization and mission to life. 

The new custom WordPress site features a robust integration with Airtable, allowing NCSI to sync resources, policies, events, and other content directly into page templates thus creating a user-friendly Resource Library to bring all this information together in one place.

Flexible content blocks make it easy for the team to adjust layouts and manage updates efficiently. To improve searchability, we implemented the Relevanssi plugin, a powerful tool that enables NCSI to track searches and manage synonyms.

Rachel Dearborn of Dearborn Strategies was an important part of our project team, leading stakeholder focus groups and content strategy to help shape a clear and intuitive site structure for NCSI’s diverse audiences.

Accessibility was a priority throughout the project. The site was designed and developed to meet WCAG Level AA standards, with careful attention to color contrast, typography, and clear content hierarchy.

The Airtable integration was a complex project feature, requiring careful attention from our development team and close connection with the plugin’s support team to ensure a smooth experience for everyone.

• A complex Air WP (Airtable integration) plug-in
• Use of our latest version WordPress Gutenberg template
• Striking new logo, consistent iconography, and a thoughtful design throughout the site, even on the 404 page. 
• Advanced filtering and search functionality to empower users to explore by topic, content type, and location.
• Featured Hot Topics section within the Resource library to help surface the most timely or relevant content.
• Information architecture that supports both direct search and thematic exploration, catering to users who know what they want and those who want to browse by topic.