CRCNA Subsite System

A system for creating sub-branded websites within the parent CRCNA website.

Client
Christian Reformed Church of North America
Project Type
Website
Date
2020
Role
As the lead UX/UI designer and front end developer, I was responsible for creating a design system for creating sub-branded websites within a parent website using the Drupal CMS. I created a style guide and static prototypes, and then I implemented those designs using PHP, Twig, CSS, and jQuery.

Summary

The Christian Reformed Church of North America is a massive organization with many child organizations, initiatives, and groups, each with its own set of content, media, events, and even brand assets. CRCNA needed a way to create mini websites for each of their initiatives while keeping the connection to the CRCNA brand apparent. This was the inspiration behind a custom subsite creation tool within their existing CMS.

Challenge

The primary challenge with this project was designing a system that would allow for the creation of custom child websites while keeping those child websites branded in a way that reflects the parent organization. We had to balance "too many" options with "not enough."

Solution

Before implementing anything, I started by creating a style guide and designing reusable components that would be used across all subsites. I then created a color palette based on the existing CRCNA branding that offered ADA compliant color options. The shared components would then adapt to the subsites selected color scheme, thereby differentiating their design while also remaining a part of the CRCNA family.

Once the design system was solidified, my team and I moved on to implementing the subsite pages within CRCNA's Drupal CMS. The options that each subsite could use to customize the appearance of their site included primary and secondary colors, logo image upload, custom tagline, banner image, and social media links. Each subsite could also have its own internal menu with child pages. Because the parent CRCNA navigation menu was pretty robust, I designed a simplified menu that would make the subsite menu more prominent, while still keeping the parent branding visible.

Results

CRCNA used this subsite system to create 40 unique child websites, and that number only continues to grow.