Web Site Design: Case Study -- FlyIthaca.com

As part of a larger plan to revitalize the local airport, the administrators of the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport needed a fresh new web site to support new marketing initiatives.

The management tools they created will help us easily edit the site without needing the technical background of a web designer.
Tony Rudy, C.M. - Assistant Airport Manager FlyIthaca.com

They required integration with a 3rd party search service (www.Kayak.com), a customized content management system, combined with a clean and effective web site design and interface and needed it done FAST.

The Airport Task Force, a group of local business owners, institutions, and airport supporters, turned to experienced Internet architect Chris Grant d.b.a. Waterfall Design to design and implement this application. Chris and engineering partner Matthew Clark jumped right on the task.

Chris and Matt were deteremined to leverage their experience in Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and construct the web site low-cost by utilizing this Open Source software. Chris and Matt operate a production Linux Server farm (Gorges web sitees.com, this server), and planned to build and deploy the application on this server.

"I appreciated their willingness to chase down the little details it takes to get something done right and making sure all of the content was in the right place. The tools they used to put the site together and allow us to modify the content quickly and easily help us keep the site fresh."
-Charles Hamilton, Business Development, Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport

A sophisticated and customized content management system (CMS) was designed and programmed. Airport administrators can quickly and easily edit the home page news and stories, community partners, the airports schedule, and have a cool photo manager that allows easy upload and auto-thumbnailing and categorization of their digital photos. Very nice! And they can do it right from their own web site, in a password protected area.

Having deployed a similar solution on our Linux platform just weeks before, we jumped right into full-speed production:

Information design took 1 week, as we organized flow charts and storyboards to show the web site.
On week 2, graphic design and database design happened in parallel.
During week 3 the real web site templates started to come together, and the content management tools were integrated.
Week 4 was final review and writing of all remaining content.

We launched the web site a day early, after 29 days of calendar time!

Our Internet Solutions generally consist of:

Custom-Built professionally designed public web site
Content Managment System (update your own news, photos, etc.)
Search Engine Optimization and registration (we make sure people can find your site)
Phone Training on how to use your site and content tools effectively
FTP Access to your site and files

And, if you uitilize our low cost hosting service, you also get: