Bishop Gadsden: Site for the Best Time of Your Life

I am not retired (clearly), nor have I been retired in the past but I hear it’s the best time of your life. So, I have dubbed the new website we launched for Bishop Gadsden, “The Hippest Site for the Best Time of Your Life.”

It had been a loooong time since we designed the first Bishop Gadsden (BG) website so we were MORE than thrilled when asked to work up estimates to redesign their site.

A few things we knew we wanted to accomplish:

• All new imagery
• Responsive website as their mobile traffic was getting serious
• Show off the new pieces/parts/programs at BG
• Reduce the number of pages
• Use lots of white space and sleek modern lines
• Fresh and youthful color palette

I mean, look at those frickin’ lambchops. Why WOULDN’T you want to show those off???!

One huge missing piece was a strong call to action on the former site. So we hooked it up with a big CONTACT US button – classy in its idle state and powerful in rollover.

Since dining is such a proud point for BG, we wanted to highlight all of the dining rooms in an interactive way.

To my own 29-year-old surprise, living at Bishop Gadsden makes you more independent than not living there – with shuttles to take you to dinner downtown, Spoleto events that come to you, and all your friends right down the hall. One of the main goals of the content was to show that just because you are living in a retirement community, doesn’t mean that you have to give up any hobbies. In fact, you are encouraged to dive deeper into your hobbies, group up with others who share interests and have fun with it.

Pool volleyball: Yes.
Photography: Absolutely.
And our (collective) favorite hobby, Art: Oh Yea.

We used 3 simple carousels to feature the different floor plans available in each of the housing options. Each carousel slide houses the name of the floor plan, entrance fees, a short description, and links to download floor plans or email the Marketing Director for more info.

Huge collages were used to show users the interior and exteriors of the apartments, assisted living and healthcare communities. Again, adding a big call-to-action to schedule a tour. Notice a trend? More pictures. More calls-to-action.

Reviving the Bishop Gadsden blog was really exciting for us as well. There is SO MUCH going on over there and we thought it would be one their strongest marketing tools. With interactivity in mind, again we used a picture-based blog approach where a large red block hid the preview image until you rollover or click on it.

And last but certainly not least, we wanted to simplify the application process to 3 simple steps. On the former site, it was a big gray area for how the process worked. We wanted to give the user a clear picture of what it would take to become a part of the Bishop Gadsden community so after a few meetings with the BG team, it was narrowed down to what you see on the site now.

Included in the entire process were tours, a few lunches and some great team meetings. All in all, I’m ready to be 65.