Open Sky Wilderness Therapy
Slice of Lime created the strategy, design, and development for Open Sky Wilderness Therapy. Open Sky assists teens, young adults and families struggling with difficult challenges and life circumstances. They provide a life-changing opportunity to discover and create a healthy life that is an intelligent and authentic expression of one’s true nature as capable, worthy, honorable people.
Strategy
We started the project by meeting with the Open Sky staff to better understand their target demographic and goals. We also visited with students and guides in the field in Durango, Colorado to learn more about their thoughts on the current website.
We discovered that there were two main audiences; parents who would send their children to Open Sky and young adults who may choose to learn about Open Sky on their own.
Competing on specific keywords in Google was also extremely important for Open Sky as there are other related programs that are direct search competitors.
Search Engine Audit and Recommendations
We brought Open Sky Wilderness through our Search Engine Audit and Recommendation package. This identified who their search competitors were (this list was different than their offline competitors), where their site stood with search engine rankings, and what their list of new targeted key phrases should be.
In a 36 page report, we presented this data as well as our recommendations on how to modify the new website copy, title tags, and other code to rise in search engine rankings for specific keyword phrases.
Information Architecture and Wireframes
Choosing to enroll in Open Sky is a big step. You’re either enrolling or sending your child to a multi-week program that will be an extremely new experience. We decided that being as transparent as possible made the most sense. The site is loaded with information ranging from clinical to wellness practices. It also contains full bios on every staff member at Open Sky.
We brought Open Sky through several rounds of information architecture and wireframe reviews to define the page structure and specific page elements needed to make the site a success.
Design
We brought Open Sky through several rounds of design reviews before landing on the final design. Our goal with design was to establish credibility while communicating safety, education, and a feel of what the environment in Durango, Colorado is like.
Development
We leveraged Wordpress as a Content Management Tool and Blogging solution. This allows Open Sky to manage the content on all of their pages and even add new pages over time. It also allows Open Sky to write blog posts around various topics in the industry, establishing them as a thought leader on wilderness therapy.
We extended Wordpress to manage their photo gallery and password-protected parent’s section. The Parent tool in Wordpress allows Open Sky to add students and upload images and communications from specific students to their parents. We coded a place for parents to login and view this information whenever they want.
Conclusion
Open Sky Wilderness Therapy was an extremely rewarding project to work on. The work that they do is commendable and the opportunity to help tell their story through the web was an honor. We’re proud to see that site traffic has dramatically increased since the launch of the new website.
Visit Open Sky today and checkout the video on the homepage to learn more!
Tags: wordpress
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