National Constitution Center

Pedrera has worked with the National Constitution Center (NCC) since 2007, acting as their primary web agency. Pedrera has provided the NCC a range of services throughout the years, such as strategic consulting on harmonizing their various web properties, ExpressionEngine development, security hardening, web server administration and maintenance.

National Constitution Center

Highlighting the "Constitution" in ConstitutionCenter.org

In the early stages of this project, Pedrera suggested that the Constitution be built into the website’s data model. Once stored natively in the website content management system (CMS), the Constitution would then become the central element by which all website content may be related. This would then allow for meaningful cross-navigation with the Constitution acting as what it truly is: the unifying element of all that the NCC publishes online.

Animation of category assignment

Building a Web Platform for the Present… and the Future

Like many organizations, the NCC worked with numerous web agencies over the years. Coupled with internal staff turnover, this created a few issues. Microsites created by external agencies in isolation lacked navigation back to the main website, creating a “dead-end” for visitors. These sites were not built on a single CMS platform (some had no CMS at all), and they were wildly inconsistent in information architecture, taxonomy, branding, strategy, reporting, etc. Over time, this made for an unmanageable and unsustainable web infrastructure.

NCC ExpressionEngine website

Looking to the new website as an opportunity to remedy this, Pedrera and the NCC worked together to design and build a robust, harmonized web platform. This included the following tasks:

  • Moving the NCC web platform from two, costly Windows servers to a single, inexpensive Linux server
  • Establishing ExpressionEngine as the standard CMS platform for all web properties
  • Programming the new website CMS in ExpressionEngine, and moving legacy websites onto the central CMS
  • Instituting a central maintenance and back-up plan that covers all websites and microsites hosted and managed on the new platform
  • Supporting oversight and coordination of web activities, including standardization of documentation, development and security best practices

Meaningful Results

Five-star review from NCC for ExpressionEngine websiteThe results for the NCC have been significant. Hosting and development costs are down, and all their websites and microsites may now be hosted, managed and edited on the central CMS platform. Moreover, with infrastructure difficulties resolved, the NCC is now better able to focus on delivering a first-class user experience with compelling content and a beautiful user interface design.

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Client: The National Constitution Center
URL: constitutioncenter.org
Services:
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