DMNA Starts New Year with a Revamped Website

The Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association recently launched an updated version of its website http://www.thedmna.org making it far more useful for its members.

They addressed 2 of the biggest usability issues of the old site - an impossible to find directory of past board meeting minutes, and a far from intuitive place to publish upcoming events.

They seem to have taken a pretty cost effective approach, skipping rebranding and many of the bells, whistles and social gadgets that are so prevalent.  Good move considering the recent budget woes facing NRP funded organizations.  Besides, I'm not looking for a new social network, just a place to keep track of my neighborhood association.  In fact, until tipped off by past Board Member Scott Parkin, I hadn't realized they had refreshed the site.  It maintains the general look and feel, but is much more polished.

Perhaps the best move they made was moving to Wordpress, by far the most popular Content Management system for small to medium sized organizations.  With the new platform they no longer need a programmer to add new content and make minor changes to the site.  The old site had become stale and not very useful due to this issue.

Above: Easy to find way to subscribe to DMNA emails.  A big improvement.

Christie Rock, DMNA Coordinator, led the the web effort.  The DMNA requested quotes from five different vendors, and chose Vivid Image based on cost, design and their experience with social media and blogging platforms.  Vivid Image's Web site is www.vimm.com.