February 26, 2010

Atomic Gets Back to the Future

Yes, we here at Atomic are excited about getting back to the future. Sadly, that doesn't mean owning a cool red puffy vest or driving a DeLorean; that was not our density. But we are proud to announce the release of our latest website: Shape Your Future Victoria - the home of the City of Victoria's Official Community Plan.

The City of Victoria is updating its Official Community Plan (OCP) to create a powerful vision and detailed plan to ensure that Victoria's growth and change over the next 30 years is sustainable. The plan sets direction for the city's growth, urban form, transportation, housing, services and infrastructure.

With such a large and important community-based goal to accomplish, the City of Victoria - a long-standing client - decided that they needed a microsite that focused specifically on the OCP. They want to drive people to this microsite as a single location at which constituents and members of the community can become involved.

For Shape Your Future Victoria site we created a bright, colourful and clean new design that showed off the natural beauty and terrific amenities that Victoria has to offer. Information was organized and laid out in a manner that will allow site visitors to access, read and contribute in the easiest way possible. Videos were added to help show off Victoria and what the City is trying to accomplish, and What's New, Events, and Media Release pages were created to increase the site's interactivity.

A customized search was also added to the site, which will help website visitors effortlessly find the important information they need about the OCP. Because the site was a municipally-funded project, accessibility was also a key; having the site reach as many people as possible was important to the City. With that in mind, we created a text-resizer and a high-contrast stylesheet for people with visual impairments. A mobile stylesheet was also implemented for those viewing the site on handheld devices. Lastly, we created the site using Wordpress templates - this is a content management system (CMS) that allows City staff to easily and affordably update the website themselves. Training for this CMS was also provided.

The future is now!

http://www.shapeyourfuturevictoria.ca

December 29, 2009

Today the LGMA, Tomorrow the World (Wide Web)!

Atomic is very happy to announce that the newest entry in our ever-expanding pantheon of municipal websites has now gone live. This project is for the Local Government Management Association of BC - the LGMA.

The Local Government Management Association of BC is a professional organization representing municipal and regional district managers, administrators, clerks, treasurers and other local government officials in the Province of British Columbia. The Association is dedicated to promoting professional management and leadership excellence in local government and to create awareness of the local government officers' role in the community.

For this project, we have provided the Association with a colourful new design for their website. We have also implemented our all-powerful content management system - ElementCMS - for LGMA, to replace their pre-existing (and under-adequate) CMS. ElementCMS was selected for its flexibility, dynamism and robustness. The CMS features a seamless integration with the sharp new design, allowing the LGMA to easily and quickly update their new website themselves.

Further additions to the site's functionality and web compatibility have been added. These include a mobile stylesheet for people using handheld devices, RSS feeds throughout the site, and an advanced search feature has been added. The combination of a new aesthetic, a powerful CMS and improved functionality assures the LGMA has a great new website with which to move forward.

http://www.lgma.ca

December 18, 2009

Happy Holidays from Atomic Crayon

Ahh, the holidays! 'Tis the season for visiting family, for seeing friends and for eating so much turkey that you lie on the couch for about 72 hours in your flannel Star Wars pyjamas watching nothing but that channel that shows the fireplace on TV. But it is also the season for giving, and we at Atomic are always very happy to help.

This holiday season, people are more in need of assistance than ever before. With that in mind, this year we have decided to forego our annual Christmas Boxes that we mail out and instead are using the money we would spend on those, and are donating to a charity instead. We believe that while our delicious shortbread will be sorely missed, our waistlines could use the break and that this donation will truly help out a lot of people in need at this time of year.

We have selected the BC Children's Hospital Foundation as the charity we will donate to this year. BC Children's Hospital is the province's only full-service acute care hospital and serves the one million children living in BC and the Yukon. All children who are seriously ill or injured are referred to Children's Hospital and are either treated at the hospital in Vancouver or, in consultation with Children's specialists, in their home community. Last year, more than 72,000 children were treated at Children's Hospital. Funds raised by the foundation are used to support BC Children's Hospital, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children and the Child & Family Research Institute. We can't think of a better cause - or a better charity - to donate to.

http://www.bcchf.net/fot/

We wish everyone a happy holidays; may all your days be festive and all your eggs be nogged.

Atomic Crayon

December 8, 2009

Atomic Sells Seashells on the West Shore

At Atomic Crayon, we've never been any good at tongue-twisters; we can't even type them without making mistakes. However, what we can do is make websites! And what's even better is we have a new client who agrees: we're pleased to announce our newest contract - we have just been selected to re-design the website for the City of Langford.

Langford is one of the municipalities of the West Shore in the Capital Regional District. Bordering Langford is the District of Metchosin, the City of Colwood, the Town of View Royal, the District of Highlands and the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area. With its central location, Langford is becoming the commercial core of the West Shore. Langford is well served by highways, rail and bus to Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, and by ferries and air to Vancouver and the US. The Victoria International Airport, approximately 35 kilometers (21 miles) away, offers direct air transportation to destinations worldwide.

On top of a great location and a strong sense of business development, the City of Langford is amazingly ambitious with regards to their web presence and new technologies. The City's already wired for free Wi-Fi throughout the downtown core, and is continually expanding. What they needed next was a unique new website that was as forward-thinking as their City council. That's where we come in.

We're going to start by giving Langford one of our custom, fantastic, state-of-art designs for their site; something that reflects the nature of the City itself. On top a great new look, the City's new site is going to have a wealth of new functionality. This includes: Job Postings; a customized Photo Gallery with photo tagging capabilities; RFPs and Tenders; FAQs; an Online Business Directory; a Forms & Documents Library; a searchable Bylaws database; Silverlight Mapping integration (ESRI); and, posting of real-time local weather. And that's not even everything!

The City's site will also have a strong focus on accessibility, including RSS feeds and multiple stylesheets for mobile devices and for people with vision impairments. Our state-of-the-art Content Management System, ElementCMS, will also be implemented. With a large combination of built-in and customized templates, ElementCMS will allow Langford staff to update the site themselves in a quick, efficient and ultimately very affordable manner. The system's power, in combination with a tech-savvy staff, will ensure the site is as up-to-date as the City itself.

Peter Piper packed a pick of peckled… dang it!

New website will go live Fall 2010.

December 1, 2009

New Atomic Website Generating Buzz

Like Muhammad Ali, we here at Atomic are going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee with our latest website; it's going to be a knockout! We're very happy to acknowledge we have just been selected to re-design the website for Bee-Clean Building Maintenance. (Please note that this is our one and only ever chance to compare ourselves to Muhammad Ali, so we went for it.)

Bee-Clean has been providing expert building maintenance and complete janitorial services for over thirty five years to a variety of clients. They supply building cleaning, supplies, equipment and related services to both private and public customers.

We are going to start by creating a terrific new design that will showcase Bee-Clean's wide array of services in a layout as clean and attractive as the buildings the company works on. Next, we'll make sure the site has a swarm of new functionality, including a focus on website accessibility. This includes a high-contrast layout and text resizing for people with visual impairments.

Also, we will be implementing our content management system, ElementCMS, for the site. ElementCMS will allow Bee-Clean staff to update the website themselves in a simple, quick and affordable matter, ensuring the website is always up to date. As a company with multiple locations and a wide variety of clients, the ability to easily consolidate and update their company information will be a large bonus to both current and prospective clientele.

This honey of a new website will be live in Spring 2010.