Indiana State Republican Party Re-Design
When the Indiana State Republican Party (INDGOP) approached Galvin, they were not satisfied with their current website. Navigation was difficult and the site was overall relatively disorganized and the site did not integrate with two major internal applications – Salesforce and RPort (INDGOP’s internal proprietary database). In short, INDGOP wanted something fresher, more vibrant, user friendly and navigable. They wanted a website where people could come and get information without a hassle, a website that better represented the INDGOP and the 92 counties.
Galvin sat down with the INDGOP and documented all of the functional, technical and design requirements so that no stone was left unturned. After the requirement process was completed it was decided by both Galvin and the INDGOP that the project would work best if done in phases. The first phase, the current website, would have the main components required to be fully functional along with 92 microsites for each of the Indiana Counties. While the next phase could potentially have microsites for Candidates and Activists.
The main INDGOP and county websites now have an “Action Center” so that visitors have direct access to the information they want– the links are readily available on the homepage for immediate usage. At the Action Center, the public can come to Join the Team to volunteer for State or County campaign tasks, write letters to the editor, search for talk radio stations and receive call-in advise, make a donation, get contact info for state and local officials and have access to the INDGOP Twitter and Facebook sites, all in one general hub.
Users can also now create their own MyIndianaGOP account and receive the News and local officials that are tailored to their county.
The County microsites were designed so that if an official running the site was suddenly unavailable for any number of reasons, the state has the ability to step in and run the site itself. If a user has an event that they would like to be included on the State INDGOP or a specific county’s website, the INDGOP and counties have the ability to receive these event submissions and add it to the corresponding website or disapprove it all with one click. To eliminate dual data entry for the INDGOP and the Counties, Galvin was able to successfully integrate the Salesforce system and the RPort database into the website. By providing these key integration points, Galvin has provided the INDGOP one point of data entry for more consistent data and more time to focus on other tasks.
During the process of building, we have trained the INDGOP personnel so that they will be able to run the site – and microsites – on their own. In the end, we have created a system that is not only immediately functional, but will be able to be sustained by the INDGOP on their accord. The result is a site that combines usability and interaction to create what should be a very successful online network for the INDGOP.
