Welcome to the newly redesigned CAPEX website!
As many of you know, the CAPEX website has been long overdue for some love. What was once a great website had fallen victim to time and technology updates, making it harder and harder to maintain the website over the past few years. To those who worked so hard and diligently on the past website, we offer our sincere appreciation and and many thanks!
Now, as we launch this new version of the website, we begin to look at what lays ahead.
Phase One
Phase one was the foundation of the new website, with a crisp new design and modern responsive architecture. Yes, the website is now very “mobile friendly!”
The intention of this phase was to accomplish the overall redesign and reprogramming, while moving the bulk of the content over from the past website. During this transition, much of the content will be updated and refreshed, but more important than that – we will be able to keep everything updated!
Let’s talk Design for a moment.
In thinking about the new look, we first needed to identify what the CAPEX website should communicate.
At the forefront of the organization is education. A great part of the CAPEX mission is to help educate our Contributors, but also the community around us. CAPEX leads the way with monthly demonstrations, Gateway events geared to help those new to the lifestyle, scholarships to various regional events and leadership conferences, and so much more. CAPEX is all about educating our community and raising strong leaders along the way.
Another communication need was that of support and inclusiveness. CAPEX does not focus on one specific segment of the local community, but remains open and inclusive for all. Within our organization, you will find those who identify with Leather and those who do not. You will find rope players, whip experts, those who excel in impact or can charge the room with electricity. You’ll find people who are straight, gay, bi, cis, trans… just about every sexuality or identity is represented. The same applies with race and nationalities. The point is, there isn’t one set type of kinks or kinksters that this organization represents.
To help communicate these core intentions, we looked at several other websites in the same “arena” and compared their “look and feel” to that of what we wanted to convey. Some websites were “dark, dangerous and edgy”, while others were light, airy and easy to use. Some used very specific imagery that conveyed very specific kinks or types of players, while other were very light on images allowing their words to paint the pictures instead.
When it came down to it, the best design option was for something cleaner, easier to navigate and more inclusive overall. The website is now more inviting. The fonts are easier to read. We’re still keeping with the darker palette, as it plays well with both the subject matter and follows the overall trend of “dark mode” design. We played off the colors of the CAPEX logo, and used those to bring in drama to the design, and used great typography to help as well.
While the metal chains and heavy leather of the header have been retired, it felt very appropriate to give a nod to the heritage of leather with a subtle pattern in the footer.
#Respect.
Sure, some may miss the harsher looks and even others may say we’ve gone “too vanilla.” But we also live in a world in which there are far too many groups out there seeking to shut down anything they don’t understand or agree with, and have done so to many other groups across this country (and even more locally.) So while perhaps the website isn’t overly “kinky” in its appearance, hopefully we can allow more education and information to flow so that “this thing that we do” isn’t so misunderstood.
Phase 2
Phase 2 will step further into content. We will be working through the current content and updating whatever needs some new love. We will also likely be adding new content that speaks to CAPEX is doing today.
We also have some relevant items that every non-profit is required to have today: ADA Compliant features, such as text-resizing options and programming techniques to ensure text-to-voice is possible. For many of us, this won’t be as exciting, but for those this impacts… We hope it to be a HUGE benefit for you!
Additionally, we’re excited to begin work on the Contributor Portal concept of the website. With this, you will be able to review your current Contributor status, update relevant information, and get updated “members only” content that you can’t get anywhere else!
Phase 3
This is the most exciting part of this rebuild… Real E-commerce! Yes, that’s right! Once the Contributor Portal is complete, we will be working to add in the ability to purchase event tickets, book floor party rooms, and maybe even renew your Contributorship right on the website! There’s even thought of a CAPEX gear store!
Some of these items are still a little bit down the road, but they are certainly on the map.
In the meantime, please enjoy the new website, and if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact the board at any time!
Sincerely,
Red
@theRedLife
Communications Director
