Day Shift Digital

"We are thrilled with our Day Shift Digital website!" BACKGROUND Please describe your company and your position there. I am the communications lead at CESBA, a non-profit professional association that represents adult and continuing education program staff working in about 60 school boards across Ontario. OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE For what projects/services did your company hire Day Shift Digital? We hired them to design a new website. What were your goals for this project? We wanted a bilingual site that looked sharp and on-brand. The site needed to be easy to navigate for our members and include much of the same content they were used to from our old site along with several added tools that they would value. SOLUTION How did you select Day Shift Digital? They were recommended by a LMS platform company we had hired. We also put out a call for proposals, which they completed. We found their proposal and pricing similar to a couple of other suppliers, but we what set them apart was getting a recommendation and meeting them. Their personalities seemed like a good fit with our team. Describe the project in detail. The website is bilingual and AODA compliant with multiple tools, including a resource library, job board, event calendar, blog, and conference site area. What was the team composition? We worked with both Tom and Sarah, the co-owners, then we met another Sarah who did the design. We interacted with Tom and Sarah directly. They hired at least one other person to help with the implementation. RESULTS & FEEDBACK Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success? We received positive feedback from our members, as well as inquiries about where things were located on the new site that we were able to resolve quickly. This shows that there has been a lot of activity with our members and it has gone smoothly. From the perspective of managing the site, it's been so intuitive that I have been able to work out how to do most things myself, but Tom has provided training and has been very responsive to any questions. How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? Tom and Sarah were delightful to work with on this project. They took the time to thoroughly understand our organization, team and web needs. They were responsive, amenable and solutions oriented. Our timelines were aggressive and they met them. What did you find most impressive about this company? We are thrilled with our Day Shift Digital website! We wanted a site that prioritize user experience and a clean, intuitive back-end that was simple to maintain and update. Design and function do not compete in our AODA compliant site. We most value that they were good listeners and problem solvers. Are there any areas for improvement? There was more manual work to move the content pieces from our old site to our new one that we had to do ourselves than I thought. I had misunderstood the volume of work that that would entail and who was responsible.

"Day Shift Digital was very collaborative, responsive, and understanding of our goals and needs." BACKGROUND Please describe your company and your position there. I am the Creative Director at Giaimo, a Toronto-based architecture firm integrating design and heritage conservation. We specialize in working with existing buildings. As a young firm founded in 2015, we have grown to 10 staff and have a diverse portfolio working on renovations, restorations, adaptive reuse, and integrating new with old. I joined in October 2020 and oversee strategic planning, digital media, business development, and communications, while collaborating with the studio on new design initiatives and research. I have been the main point of contact with Day Shift Digital, coordinating the website and my teams' needs. OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE For what projects/services did your company hire Day Shift Digital? To design and develop a new custom website for the firm. What were your goals for this project? Our existing website was a simple squarespace template not meant for architecture, it was for photographer portfolios. As a young firm founded in 2015, this squarespace website was sufficient for us at first, but over the last two years our team has more than doubled as has our portfolio and we needed a new way to share the stories of our studio, approach, process, and projects in more detail. The goal was to create a significantly more comprehensive website, that could showcase our research, design process, team, and provide a narrative to each of our unique projects as opposed to just showing photos of it once complete. We also wanted to highlight our unique brand and services as we specialize in both design and heritage. SOLUTION How did you select Day Shift Digital? I then reached out to 3 different consulting agencies that offered both website design and development, Day Shift Digital included, after having an initial conversation with each as well as receiving their proposals we selected Day Shift Digital. I was familiar with the other 2 agencies already and happy with their work, Day Shift I did not know but was recommended to me by a friend in the tech industry. Ultimately, we were happy with all 3 agencies we met with, but felt Day Shift's process was most flexible and responsive to our needs, as well as the most affordable. Describe the project in detail. Day Shift developed: mood boards for the design of the website, site map, wireframes, high fidelity design, and then final design and development of our new website. We provided some basic branding, including our logo, preferred typeface, design parameters (large size font, lots of white background) and a list of websites we liked and did not like. However, going in we did not have a specific design in mind and they developed that with our feedback. The focus was to tell our story, sharing lots of text and images in the form of: project pages, news page, research pages, about our practice, about our process, and contact. What was the team composition? They had one main project manager/point-of contact. In the kick-off we met the entire team (3 others), and then when we had meetings during design the design team was there and when in development the development team was there. On our end, we had one main point-of-contact (myself) and then in meetings there were 3 other client reps, and at key points I had the entire office (10 people) review and provide feedback internally for me to pass onto Day Shift Digital. RESULTS & FEEDBACK Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success? Overall the website is significantly more functional and beautiful and now meets our needs. Two key challenges we had going in were: we did not want to look like every other architecture firm, and we wanted our unique brand to come through with a playful creative element. We did not know how this was possible, given that architecture firm websites tend to look the same simply because we all require the same functional needs, but Day Shift was able to come up with a solution that makes us stand out without sacrificing function. Similarly, they developed a fun design element that we have not seen on another website which aligns with our brand. How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs? Workflow was very clear and streamlined. Both sides had one point of contact which helped a lot. Day Shift Digital always responded promptly to our questions or comments, and deliverables were met as per schedule if not earlier by Day Shift. Calls/meetings were scheduled when necessary, but most communication occurred over email. What did you find most impressive about this company? Day Shift Digital was very collaborative, responsive, and understanding of our goals and needs. When there were points in the process where we we unsure with the material being presented to us, they were great at providing solutions and ensuring we would be happy with the final product. We were a highly engaged client to work with, because as architects we feel strongly about design. However, while we all work in design, website design is very different from architectural design in terms of approach and process, so it was a challenge at times for my team to understand/trust the process. Despite all this, Day Shift was able to work well with us and create a website we're happy with. Are there any areas for improvement? No, any time there was an issue or concern on our end Day Shift readjusted their process and provided an improvement in the moment.