Responses by Josh Bishop, interactive creative director, Matchbox Studio

Background: The purpose of the site was to position the renamed Trinity Park Conservancy as an organization that is inclusive of everyone in the Dallas community. We also wanted to inspire monetary, emotional, intellectual and physical participation in the creation of a nature-based gathering place for all Dallas citizens, as well as educating the public on the larger Trinity River Corridor Project.

Highlights: The look and feel of the brand is striking and bold, which comes across in the color palette, font styles, copywriting, structure and functionality of the website. The menu system is entirely custom designed and the imagery supports the organization’s nature-based mission.

Challenges: The “Tout” module system. The client wanted the site to feel active and engaging, so we built a system that allows administrators to call out any type of content on any page of the site. It also needed to be able to choose different sizes and styles for any tout module and link them to any type of content. Tying that all together and accounting for a large number of unique configurations was a real challenge.

Favorite details: The main navigation menu on the desktop. I think this is one of the design elements that makes the site unique. When users first land on the homepage, the menu sits on the bottom of the full-width image. As users scroll up, it scrolls with them and then sticks to the top of the browser; the menu is always perfectly aligned with the content modules scrolling beneath it.

Navigational structure: The client really liked the idea of using the names of the top level menu items to convey meaning and set the proper tone. So, we used terms like “Your River, Our Role, Enjoy it Now” to help support the tone of our story. We did take a more practical approach with the sub-page naming, and when viewed in desktop widths, the menu system gives users the best of both approaches.

Technical features: The river map filtering system was a particularly challenging feature. The client requested a robust group of filters and categories to allow users to narrow down the map locations based on their needs. This was uncharted territory for our team, as we had never had the opportunity to create a sophisticated filtering system for a Google Map.