Case Study
Death Penalty Information Center
Making it easier to find, study and engage with facts and information about the death penalty
01
The Challenge
To organize a large and unwieldy website, replace an aging technology, accurately represent extensive datasets, and redesign a dated online presence.
02
The Approach
A thoughtful discovery and technical implementation to bring order to DPIC’s copious amounts of content and data, providing a new framework to last.
03
The Outcome
Research-based solutions, a brand new website built on Craft CMS, a custom database, and a modern and responsive design with reusable templates.
Client Introduction
Leading source of death penalty information
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) is a nonprofit organization that serves as the leading source of trusted information about the death penalty in the US. Founded in 1990, DPIC promotes informed discussions on capital punishment and serves as a resource to those studying, reporting, or working on the issue of the death penalty.
Project at a Glance
What Our Team Provided
Solutions
- Websites
How it started
Elevating an expansive site
The Death Penalty Information Center’s website is a highly trafficked resource for sharing news, research, and facts about the death penalty. We set out to organize their expansive site containing considerable content from nearly two decades of active publishing. Working hand-in-hand with DPIC’s stakeholders, we designed a solution that brings a thoughtful approach to managing and serving relevant content and statistical data to a diverse user base.
Research & Discovery
Audit, Analytics & User Research
The DPIC website averages around 400,000 users per month and has over 15,000 pieces of unique content in the form of web pages, images, and other assets. We conducted user research that resulted in a 70 page report of data-driven strategic recommendations. Our goal was to design an experience that provided a simpler way for administrators to make content available and allowed end users to more easily find, digest, and interact with that content.
Strategy & Design
Intuitive & Flexible
Research activities like a content audit, user testing, and personas helped us design an improved information architecture. We restructured the website’s navigation and the flow of content on individual pages, considering an information hierarchy that made the most important or sought after content readily available and allowed for opportunities to dig deeper into resources. Finally, we created a flexible design system that helped provide structure and direction for content publishing.
Database
Custom data management
Meanwhile, as we were working on the website, we also put our efforts towards a new way for DPIC to manage their data. DPIC happens to have the most comprehensive dataset collection on capital punishment within the US, but they struggled to present it all because there wasn’t a singular place to store and manage all the data. We decided to build a custom database to solve this issue.
The custom data management application we built allows the aggregation, management, and reporting of DPIC’s vast store of information. The new database application also makes data available for real-time display on the new website through a custom Craft plugin, a Tableau connector, and public and private GraphQL endpoints.
Content Management System
Adaptable & Scalable
We replatformed the website onto Craft CMS. Our focus in the CMS build was providing modular content components combined with data relationships to give DPIC the ability to create a fluid website that would scale and adapt as the demands of the website and the organization’s publishers changed. The content publishing experience we delivered was a significant improvement for DPIC administrators.
The end result
An across-the-board upgrade
With the new website and database, we delivered an across-the-board digital upgrade that eliminates former obstacles for staff and provides opportunities for further sharing and engagement with the material. We’ve continued to work with DPIC on improving and advancing the website and database even after launch.
Client Testimonials
"“The new website and database have enormous potential that we are just beginning to unleash. […] We think Foster Made did a terrific job and we encourage users to check out the new site and experiment with the new interactive graphics.”"
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