CHF BC Drupal Migration and Redesign

In 2010, the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC came to us looking for a redesign of their site with a content management system (CMS) that would allow them full control over their site content, as well as space to grow and adapt to their changing needs.

The previous version of their site made it difficult to update content in certain areas, and had a fairly busy homepage, few dynamic features, and no social media integration.

Aside from moving to Drupal, some of the features of the project included:

A brand new custom design and theme

We collaborated with one of our design partners, Talia Cohen, to create a brand new custom design, and then built a custom Drupal theme for the new site. The goal was a revised version of the colour palette, a cleaner and more modern look and feel, and more space to visually communicate what CHF BC does.

Data migration from the old website

There was a significant data migration that was part of the initial stages of moving to Drupal. This migration included static pages, forums, and a significant amount of data from the directory of housing co-operatives in the site, which included photo galleries, locations, information about the type, quantity, and cost of units, and other descriptive information about the individual housing co-ops.

Map and list based Co-op Directory search

The interactive map and list based search allows site users to both browse and search for housing co-ops, and refine their searches by Co-op, City, Member co-ops, and open waiting lists.

Workshop listings and private group workspaces

A public Workshop listing page and descriptions lead into private group spaces for workshop attendees, which allow workshop learning materials and discussions to be posted for attendees only, and for site administrators to easily manage who should have access to this content.

Members Area

The Members Area of the site contains information for CHF BC members, as well as the BC Talk members forum, and private group areas for the Board of Directors and Staff of CHF BC. This allows the members and Directors/Staff to centralize their information and discussions in an easy to use format. The site administrator at CHF BC can add new private groups any time, and manage the members and level of privacy.