It’s been over two weeks since the Barrel + BARC | 24 Hour Challenge went down and a brand new website for BARC was launched. We’ve made a few tweaks here and there and also met with Howard to go over feedback we received about the website.

Here are screenshots of what it looks like today:

And here are some stats from the first two weeks since the website launch:

7,478 visits (534+ visitors per day)
44,298 pageviews
$740.00 in online donations (from 20 donors; 12 of them are monthly recurring)

We’ve very proud and happy about how the new BARC website turned out. We hope to continue advising them on best ways to maintain and improve the website, and look forward to seeing more animals finding great homes!

Note: The new site is at www.barcshelter.org

During the final minutes the atmosphere is a mixture of chaos, excitement and sluggishness as the website is launched. A big shout out to the Barrel team, BARC and all the volunteers for coming together for a good cause and working extremely hard to accomplish what seemed initially impossible.

What we accomplished in the last twenty four hours:

1. Created graphics for print collateral
2. Finished, screen printed collateral
3. Installed and customized a content management system for the website
4. Designed a new look and feel for the website through new icons and a new color palette
5. Tweaked existing photos to fit the new design
6. Improved site navigation, information architecture and overall user experience
7. Refined the adoption process with the addition of a new page
8. Created new copy for the website
9. Ran a continuous live stream of the challenge
10. Updated various media channels (flickr, YouTube, facebook)
11. Provided continuous coverage via this blog

Not to mention, we ate A LOT of food.

Cheers to the Barrel team!

Twenty four hours later we’re still standing and we’ve hopefully helped orphaned, homeless animals find better homes with their rightful owners through the redesigned BARC site:

Thanks for your support and for tuning in! Barrel team, over and out.

Pulling things together as the sun rises over Manhattan. The 24 Hour Challenge atmosphere lingers pleasantly mixed with the smell of Intelligentsia coffee.

Intelligentsia coffee softly brewing…

A morning stretch

Glorious rays

Breakfast when you’re ready!

Go Howard!!

Crunch time! 2 hours and 33 minutes left!

Remember Andrea and Jane? They’re still at the print shop in Brooklyn and they just sent this photo over.

I love the ’80s bubble gum colors on the print – possible with those lovely inks from Speedball Art. And I am definitely wanting that tote. Cute!

Thanks Ecobags.com for those perfect totes and French Paper, couldn’t have done it without that French! Customink – can’t wait to see these tees hot off your presses!

Howard and Satie, bonding.

Checking items off the list. Check! Check! Check! Go Faster! Faster!

It looks like a drawing and it is a drawing but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. How does it work you ask? Why, you step into the drawing of course! Never mind whether it’s been tested. I mean, if you lose an elbow but gain a lifetime, are you really going to mind?

Yeah, probably.

Anyway, I found Barrel’s time machine! Their secret weapon! Now, I just need to catch them using it…

Where did the time go? It seems like just a second ago it was 9am and I was arriving at the Barrel office, being greeted by Chocolate and meeting the team. Now, a tub of radioactive cheese balls and a platter of brownies later, it’s already past 4am and there’s only four more hours to go.

The team is starting to apply the creative design onto the customized ExpressionEngine pages. Below is the Dogs section landing page:

And a lower level, dog profile page:

Let’s compare the new Dog’s landing page with the old Dogs landing page:

To be fair, the old website was so outdated that it gave the team a lot of opportunities for improvement. That said, the team is working hard to take advantage of those opportunities and it shows. The new design is clean, fresh and much better organized, making use of ample white space allowing the pages to breathe. But there’s still a lot more to do and there’s only four hours left! The office has quieted down, energy levels waning. Will the team succeed? Perhaps they have a secret weapon stashed somewhere…

This is our seventh? eighth? ninth? – I don’t know I’ve lost count – meal in the last nineteen hours. After midnight, the appetite increases exponentially.

Here’s Reggie chowing down his Corner Bistro burger:

Andy grabs one, looks at it and says, “I don’t think I can finish it.” Five bites later, he does.

Here’s a sneak peek at the finished BARC site! 5 hours and 14 minutes left!!

More coming up!