Blue Mouse Monkey Blog

I am one of the few people in the world who doesn’t really enjoy playing Scrabble. And because I practice way less than everybody else, I’m not very good at it, which compounds my lack of enjoyment: I am guaranteed to be beaten.

But I like the Scrabble pieces, and tonight I used them to help me idea-generate nonsense-word names for a client. Their new business needs a new name, and one of the avenues we’re exploring is nonsense words. Think Etsy, Zappos, and Flickr. The Scrabble pieces were excellent raw material.

It was fun playing with the letters off the grid. I think it’s the grid that bothers me. (I don’t like crossword puzzles, either.)

It’s difficult to share the work we do behind the scenes of organizations, but at least we can show a screenshot. The Northwest Health Foundation needed an internal portal. They were tired of communicating via long email strings, and tired of piecemeal distribution of information. They needed an easy archive-and-retrieval system for their meeting materials from their multiple committees. Plus they wanted a central space for announcements, and an internal blog. Additionally, they needed to control granular access to this material: it was important to allow some committee members full access, and others access only to the minutes, materials, and blog posts relevant to their specific area of work.

We created an interface design based on NWHF’s public website, to make the new portal familiar and friendly to the staff who use it. We also used Expression Engine’s membership tools to allow granular access at different levels of membership. Named “B0utros” after a staff-member’s dog, the new portal has become the lively, always-accessible home to the foundation’s communications and record-keeping.

Scott Sparling is a Portland writer and author of the forthcoming novel Wire to Wire (Tin House, June 2011). Scott came to Blue Mouse Monkey for an exceptional and innovative design solution to showcase his edgy novel. Combining large-scale imagery with content that pulls you into the world of the book, this author website transcends the genre.

The Urban Mamas redesign project has been rolling out incrementally for a while now, so it seems odd to announce it as a “launch”. But looking back at how much has changed on this dynamic online community for mamas who want to share tips, advice, reviews, ideas, fun, and challenges, I see it’s time to put out the announcement. The UrbanMamas team came to us with an already successful multi-page blog that needed its content restructured and a design facelift. A combination of owner- and user-generated content made for some interesting challenges as we shuffled the information around in this heavily-trafficked site. The new design reflects the hip mamas style of the site owners.

Austin Granger is a photographer and writer who has produced three books, and wanted us to create online versions of each of them. The challenge was to reproduce the books in web form in a way that preserved as much of the flavor of “book”, with its concomitant hierarchies of information, while maintaining good digital user interface and information design. The resulting triple-website presents nearly 400 photographs, along with Austin’s 9-chapter essay on Point Reyes. Check out the three books: Elegy from the Edge of a Continent: Photographing Point Reyes, Lights and Keepsakes, and Astoria.

The Tobacco Free Coalition of Oregon (TOFCO) is revitalizing anti-tobacco advocacy in Oregon through a grassroots movement and outreach to communities most impacted by the harmful effects of tobacco use. Blue Mouse Monkey is proud to have worked with TOFCO to create a website that acts like a virtual staff member. The site provides relevant information to community advocates and decision makers, builds the tobacco-free movement support base, increases efficiency, and elevates TOFCO’s presence in the community at large.

The Spirit Mountain Community Fund is the philanthropic arm of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and is one of Oregon’s largest funders of non-profits. Their old website confused grant applicants, and Fund staff struggled with poorly constructed applications. Additionally, the Tribe’s distinctive spirit, its achievements, and its leadership role in social change in Oregon were obscured. To top it off, staff members had only minimal control over the content.

Blue Mouse Monkey tackled these problems with a complete reorganization and rewriting of content, total visual redesign, and a new, easy-to-use CMS (Content Management System). As one of the focus group participants said, “I’ve started the application process  twice before, and each time I gave up because I got so confused. You’ve laid it out all really clearly and I finally understand what to do!”

We were thrilled to work with SMCF, and help them help so many of Oregon’s non-profits do the great work they do.

Blue Mouse Monkey is pleased to announce the launch of the new website for the The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC). A University Transportation Center, OTREC supports innovations in sustainable transportation through advanced technology, integration of land use and transportation, and healthy communities.

OTREC had outgrown its old website, and Blue Mouse Monkey was challenged with a complete reorganization of current content, addition of new content, a new look and feel, and a new content management system. What’s exceptional about this website is the degree to which content is cross-referenced. Because OTREC’s database of research projects is always growing, along with the participating faculty, news stories, and other cumulative content, it was important to create a site that made it easy for users to not only find specific information, but make connections between information. OTREC staff are also avid users of social media, and social media strategy and and integration was an important component of this project.

Audiences include transportation researchers and planners, transportation and planning students, transportation agencies and industries, the media, and RITA, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s research administration.