A compelling site is necessary to achieve your mission

The assignment

Femke had only been working at OpenEmbassy for a few months. "The discussion about the need for a new site was going on before I came here. But there wasn't really enough time and knowledge to take this on properly. When I came here, with my background in refugee work and as a web consultant, everything fell together and I was able to work on it."

Femke, because of her background, knows exactly what it takes for a good site. The navigation, the technology; she already had the necessary knowledge of WordPress and its capabilities. She also had the entire wireframe for the site already figured out.

The situation

The old site was made when the organization was much smaller. There were also very different needs back then, Femke explains. If you change as an organization and want to grow, you need a site that fits in again. In the old site we could not change much ourselves, our current portfolio could not be displayed properly and the design needed an update; we really wanted to take steps. The translation function did not work automatically so the translations kept lagging behind. Time for a new site.

Clear. While creating the new site, Femke found out that they were 35 projects behind the old site. All beautiful projects that no one knew about, that is. We won't let that happen now.

"If you want to grow as an organization, your Web site must be able to keep up with that. More is often possible than you think."

the purpose

"We had already done quite a bit of preliminary work," says Femke. "We also had quite a large set of requirements that a web agency had to meet. A few years ago I had already been in contact with Buro Staal and I still received their newsletter. That's how they stayed top of mind with me."

 "I wanted to make sure that the new site would last technically for a long time. And I also got a nice feeling about Buro Staal's site, that they are nice people but also down-to-earth. That was exactly what I was looking for."

THE approach

During the first interview, there was an immediate click. "Annemieke immediately went into the content. She told us that we could go one step further by creating links. With this we could make the projects and messages filterable and link themes, team members and projects. We immediately got excited. We did have to wait a while for them due to busyness, but we really thought they were the best. It was worth the wait."

"We did ask Annemieke right away if she wanted to be our contact person, and fortunately she wanted to. Thus, she translated the updated brand guide, which we had already had created by our regular design agency, very well into the web design."

We started, as always, with the home page. That gives a good idea of what the site will look like, what the look will be. "Annemieke's first design was immediately fun and creative. She very nicely incorporated the flag from our logo into the site, for example as a photo frame, with the quotes and in the footer."

"We mailed off a bit. Annemieke then responded to the questions in different colors, which was very nice. Annemieke and Rick also very proactively came up with all kinds of suggestions, which I hadn't considered at all, to make the site even better. Together they lifted the site to a higher level."

"We are really extremely happy with the end result! The combination Annemieke/Rick worked super and the 3 of us also complemented each other very well."

THE result

Clear results are still some time away, as the site was launched just before the summer vacations. But reactions are positive. "An NT2 teacher said that our site shows exactly what is needed for newcomers. That we really understand it. We like to hear that, of course. New municipalities we approach are also responding very positively. We get a lot of requests for introductory interviews after the summer. One policy officer said she had looked at the site and thought it looked interesting. She wanted to make an appointment."

Viewers rate the site as good, lively, accessible, dynamic, fresh and friendly.
Goal achieved, so? "Yes, our story is clearer now and we can showcase our portfolio well. We are reaching municipalities and ministries better. So more and more people start working with effective evidence-based newcomer policies. And that's our mission!"

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