Eisenhower Memorial Case Study

Discovery and Design

The Eisenhower Memorial Commission approached us with an existing, fully functional website dedicated to the soon to be finished Eisenhower Memorial in Washington DC. The existing website was created over a decade ago with minimal changes since then. It was visually out of date, and the absence of a mobile-friendly theme precluded many visitors from fully utilizing its resources. Due to the impending dedication of a new national memorial for Dwight Eisenhower, the Memorial Commission sought to refresh their web experience so it would both engage and inform the public on Eisenhower’s legacy.

With the imminent launch of Eisenhower’s National Memorial, the Commission knew there would be an increased interest in IKE’s legacy along with higher traffic to their website. Since the Eisenhower Commission is supported by public funds, having a well-crafted development plan is key to ensuring proper funding for a timely launch.

Our team initially met with the Eisenhower Memorial Commission to discuss the project and goals. Our first step was to create a cohesive, modern design that was both functional and properly paid tribute to the legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower. We worked with the Commission on several iterations of the design until we reached an agreement on the final design.

Buildout

Through the discovery, we planned the buildout and outlined every update that needed to be deployed, ensuring that new functionality would maintain and complement existing workflows. We organized all work according to role and data model so that specific models and roles that contained similar functionality would be tackled at the same time. Work was broken out by ticket and assigned in 2-week sprints, with client meetings occurring weekly to showcase progress and discuss new functionality.

Once we started development, our first task was to make the existing website fully mobile-friendly. We modified the existing theme to allow for responsiveness across multiple platforms. Since this impacted important system functionality, our developers spent a considerable amount of time to ensure that the entire system continued to function properly as we made it mobile-friendly.

Our next step was to create the additional content types that the Memorial needed, including upcoming events and countdowns to the opening ceremonies.

We then began to develop the new theme, applying it to the site framework before focusing on internal pages. Once the new design was applied to the site’s framework, including the universal menu, headers, and footers, we began to focus on conforming the inside pages to align with the new brand standards.

We also focused on creating a new home page for the Memorial, including a countdown to the Memorial’s opening, as well as upcoming event information for the opening ceremonies, all prominently displayed for the public.

Throughout the buildout process, our project managers QA’d features and functionality on the website as they were created and pushed to our development server. We regularly handed off sections of the site to the client for QA, ensuring that everyone had tested and signed off on the style changes prior to launch.

Launch

The updated Eisenhower Memorial website delivers a fully functional mobile experience geared towards citizens interested in learning about the new Eisenhower Memorial in Washington DC. Information is now easily accessible, allowing for visitors to efficiently interact with the virtual resources as they visit the physical memorial. The new Eisenhower Memorial website elevates their brand, positioning them to capture new traffic and be a critical trusted source of information for students and teachers regarding Dwight D Eisenhower and his role in the Second World War.