ThinkKC – Building Power into a Web Site
For a number of years now, the Kansas City Area Development Council has used its web presence to serve as the core of its overall communications program. It's newly redesigned web site – ThinkKC.com – will give KCADC even more communications options.
KCADC's ThinkKC.com web site integrates an extensive tool set of dynamic capabilities, as well as engaging and user-focused features designed to enhance usability.
Hitting the Target || The new ThinkKC.com web site is a multi-faceted tool that KCADC uses to communicate with its vastly varied audiences. The different sections of the site provide information targeted to KCADC’s primary target audiences, which include site location specialists, the local investor community, career seekers and the media.
The site, which we developed working in tandem with a separate back-end programming group, incorporates a variety of Flash modules, extensive databases, a robust calendar application, an on-the-fly PDF file generator, RSS feeds and a content management system.
ThinkKC's interactive community demographics map system integrates Flash and database programming to allow the user to be in control.
Making Flash Work Harder || A good example of how this functionality supports a recognized target audience can be found in the map of the cities and counties comprising the KC metro area. On the metro map, users can click on a city or county, and a Flash script pulls some sample data from KCADC’s city and county database into a snapshot window. Then if the user want more information, they can click to a dynamically generated page that lists the full dataset for that municipality.
Finding a Practical Solution || Another unique solution was found for the data profiles of the metro. Since the research that provides the data comes from so many different sources and exists in so many different formats, it wasn’t practical to try to put it in a database. Instead, each section of the various profiles was referenced, and a PDF generator was used to create downloadable PDF documents from the profile elements a user selects.
An evolving web site, ThinkKC’s latest addition is this year’s online annual report.
And one of the most interesting aspects of this project is that this site is at the very beginning of its ultimate evolution. The site’s foundation has been built in a manner that will make it easy to build on as new technologies emerge and resources become available.