Keeping Families Close
Since 1983, the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Mid-Missouri has been fulfilling their mission: to provide a ‘home away from home’ to families of children receiving medical treatment.
Built on the simple idea that families with ill children shouldn’t have to worry about where they’ll sleep or get their next meal, the House works hard to “make their new normal as normal as can be”. Families are given home-cooked meals, comfortable beds, hot showers, laundry facilities and more.
In short, they’re some of the coolest people we know.
Finding Normalcy Through Simplicity
Despite all of this, RMHC still struggled with a less-than-cool website. They thought it could stand some simplifying and offer easier access to the abundant resources, events, and information at their disposal.
They wanted a new website that would:
- Share general information for families staying in the house.
- Share information in a format that was easy for users to navigate.
- Use callouts throughout the site to easily allow users to get from one place to the next.
- Link to their Donation portal that would allow users to donate through the new site (without taking them to a new website).
Just a Spoonful of Sugar…
Yes, laying out a website with as much content to share as this can feel at first like quite a daunting chore. It’s easy, though, when you’ve got a design like the one we were privileged to create for them. In summation: the new Ronald McDonald House Charities website was a beast, a beast that we had so much fun building!
With a bright blue, red, and yellow color palette, playful icons, and large images (that are soooooo cute!), we really went to town showing off every incredible thing this organization does for families who need their services.
Events, Photos & Family Stories
RMHC has helped a lot of families, so the Home page proudly shares some of those sweet stories. We added photo banners of The House in action to nearly every page of the site, too. At a glance, you can see upcoming events within the Signature Events section and click to see details for each event. (That doesn’t mean you should miss the Events page — the layout is SO fun.)
For convenience, RMHC’s address, a map of their location, and a contact form are featured at the bottom of every page (in the footer, as we developers call it. 😉) Now you can locate or contact Ronald McDonald House Charities no matter where you are on the site!
Rich History
What this organization is doing now is important, and so are the many years of dedication that led RMHC to where they are today.
Through a really impressive plugin called Cool Timeline, we built a custom, visually-stunning historical timeline on their History page to display their mention-worthy milestones. Boxes for each milestone appear with an image and description, flipping as you scroll and represented with its own special icon. In a word, it’s adorable.
Community Impact
Boy, do we love numbers here at MayeCreate. So naturally, when we saw the impressive list of stats Ronald McDonald House gave us to feature on their new site, we knew we had to showcase them in a way that would truly strike the hearts of anyone who saw them.
We also love discovering new tools, like the nifty CountUp Gutenberg block that’s part of a plugin called Premium Blocks. You pick your icon, text, colors and sizes and put them all together for an awesome look and fun “count up” effect when the page loads. See for yourself!
Getting Involved
With so many ways to help this organization, RMHC really wanted to clearly display these giving/volunteering options on their new layout.
We addressed this need by adding landing pages for Ways to Give and Get Involved into the main navigation. Each of these pages has huge calls-to-action guiding visitors to the related pages for each way they can contribute to the cause. We also included sub-navigation for each landing page linking to the respective pages for each section.
Additional features you’ll find on the new Ronald McDonald House Charities website:
- Mobile Friendly Design – Adaptive Template
Websites that are mobile-friendly with adaptive templates will be served more often on search engines to people using their mobile devices. - Custom WordPress Theme
With Custom WordPress Themes, the website design is unique and the structure is flexible, scalable, and easily manageable. Let’s just say websites with custom WordPress themes aren’t forced to reside inside the box. - Safe Site Plan
The new Ronald McDonald House Charities website is enrolled in our Company Safe Site Plan, meaning we’ve enhanced the site in an effort to offensively protect them from hackers. We backup the sites daily, maintain regular WordPress and plugin updates, and monitor site activity and link function. - Updates & Ongoing Maintenance
It’s imperative to keep content fresh with regular updates to keep clients and prospects interested. With their website completed, we help RMHC stay on top of their game by performing requested updates and changes to the website as requested. - Historical Timeline
RMHC’s new website features a visually impressive timeline on their History page showcasing over 45 years of milestones that have contributed to their growth and reputation for helping families throughout mid-Missouri. - Animated Count-Up Statistics
The What We Do page proudly displays a colorful grid of images and statistics related to the impact they’ve had on the families they serve throughout Missouri. The statistics themselves take on a “counting up” animation as they scroll into view. So. Cool. - Expandable/Collapsible Staff Section
Anyone who joins the Ronald McDonald House team can easily be added to the website through a custom post type we build for Staff members. RMHC opted for a expand/collapse layout that displays the individual’s bio underneath their contact information when someone clicks on their image or related text.
Are you looking for a website?
Does your site lack a historical timeline with subtle fade-in animation, or do you just need a website in general? Contact the team at MayeCreate Design. We believe websites work when good design meets solid functionality. Our web designs always aim for ease of use and clear communication. Check out our portfolio for a look at our other projects and to get your pride on…today.
