Website: www.options-empower.org.uk
Options are a busy charity working across Merseyside to support disabled people in their everyday lives. Seed have been working with Options for over a year as their ideas for their website have evolved.
In the early stages of the project, Options identified a need for a website which brought their volunteers, support workers and supported people closer together; and which made it easy for all involved to access written documents and resources. Options were also keen for the site to be visually striking and accessible, getting across that they are a highly organised and professional support organisation but also have a friendly and community-oriented approach to their work.
Seed started out by creating a range of artwork for the website, using state-of-the-art 3D modelling software. A number of characters and scenes were built up to provide strong visual identities for each major area of the website. The 3D techniques mean we now have a "library" of characters and scenes from which more artwork panels can be created as the website grows.
Later on in the project, it became clear that Options would begin using the website most as a support tool for staff and trustess. Seed were able to respond easily to this change in emphasis, re-modelling the website's community-building tools to provide training calendars, memo systems, document libraries and so on.
The Options site has just been launched, but is still very much in its infancy. Seed are continuing to work with Options as the site grows, providing staff training, and adding new features to support their growing community.