Web V1 from 2013, at least 14 years after launch!
In early 2014, just after I started working here, Theodore Payne Foundation premiered a new web site, the product of many months of work. This was a big step forward for TPF and a crowning accomplishment for former Executive Director Lynnette Kampe. After four years of using the site almost every day, I am grateful for this advance and the platform it has given us. But, I still fondly remember the original site. That first site was created by board members and volunteers John Wickham and Ken Gilliland. The vision and hard work of TPF leadership meant that the Foundation had a rich, robust web presence long before many other organizations. As a gardener, I visited that earliest version to find TPF’s hours, peruse the inventory, and scope out sales. A few phantom pages are still floating around the WWW.
Today, we are launching theodorepayne.org V3 with an eye toward modern communication and the power of beauty to promote native plants. So, what’s new?
Desert willow, Chilopsis ‘Burgundy’ by Madena Asbell
The look, of course, has taken a more modern turn with brighter colors, more images, and a few videos.
The organization is meant to be more accessible to people just learning about native plants (and the Theodore Payne Foundation) while keeping key resources, including the Native Plant Database, Inventory, and Calendar of classes, on the top of every page.
The calendar streamlines registration by linking directly to Eventbrite.
The blog is for us to share information and updates with you. In part, the blog fills the place left by The Poppy Print member newsletter, but allows us to spread our word beyond our membership.
While the site is going live today, new features will be added over the next few weeks, so please check back in.
Like all great TPF projects, this one was the work of many people. I’d like to thank the Sanders Charitable Trust for their transformative support. Without their gifts, a good idea would have remained only an idea. Our webmaster Matt Silbert has worked hand in hand with TPF staff since 2013 and we thank him for his creativity, responsiveness, and good cheer. Barbara Eisenstein read over all the material on the site (amazingly!) and suggested improvements. The delightful opening video is courtesy of Aerial Inspired Reality. Many TPF staff contributed further to the site’s organization, content, and images. Without their programs, we wouldn’t have much to post! My sincere thanks to all.
— Kitty Connolly, Executive Director
Love the new website. Attractive and very well organized. One minor bug, however, that I’ll just bet you already know about. The top header drops down a bit when scrolling back to the top of a given page. On many websites today having the header drop down when starting to scroll back up reveals the navigation menu which would otherwise be hidden once you start to read down into the page. This can be really helpful in that it makes it unnecessary to scroll clear back to the top of the page in order to re-access the menu. However, on the TPF website this header drop down doesn’t occur until the user has completely scrolled back to the top of the page. The disadvantage to this, as I found when reading the blog entry about the new website, is that having that header drop down after reaching the top of the page covers up the blog title, author, date and comments link. Seeing as you are not revealing any new or missing links by dropping the header down, in that they are there all the time only just a bit smaller after scrolling down into the page, I would recommend removing this little header drop down feature altogether. Not needed and just in the way as the website is currently designed.
I’m looking at the website on my PC, Win7, with both Chrome and Firefox browsers.
Good point, Geoff. Thanks for bringing that up. We’ll look into changing that. And thanks for the feedback!