The Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (BID) is among the more than 70 BIDs that serve 85,000 businesses and invest $134 million annually in New York City neighborhoods.  The purpose of the Bed-Stuy BID website is to serve as a communication platform reaching out to the community and supporting local businesses.  The Bed-Stuy BID had begun redesigning their website with an initial developer however, they were not satisfied with the results or the level of communication. Having worked on other BID websites, I was brought in to discuss options for moving forward and  subsequently given the opportunity to complete the site redesign.

Since I was jumping  into a project that was already started, my first step was to go over the existing work with a fine tooth comb and see where I could clean up some technical glitches.  The previous developer had some nice visual concepts but unfortunately the site was “jumpy” when scrolling down pages and not responsive to mobile devices.  It became clear that a fresh start was more efficient than trying to fix the many issues.  Full steam ahead, I kept the colors and banner images that the client liked and added key functional features such as a filterable business directory, a blog where they could post community news and an events calendar for posting both community and BID sponsored events.  The result was a website that reflects the community it serves and could be maintained by BID staff.