MomTalk

OVERVIEW

MomTalk.com is a community site for moms; the site originated in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. The site features content for, by, and about moms, including articles, forums, and more.

CHALLENGE

The main challenge for the site was managing all of the content in the various sections and on site pages, while maintaining clear navigation and a consistent look and feel.

Specific issues

• Content contributors were writers rather than technical engineers; content management had to be simple enough to allow contributors to do their thing and not get in the way
• Content management had to allow for repositioning of content on site as needed.
• Site had to feature more than just content articles; everything had to tie together
• Site had to be more than a blog, but not at the expense of ease of content management.

SOLUTION

Pathfinder chose to integrate a blogging package to handle content management, and integrate this seamlessly into a larger, more complete site environment.

Specific improvments

• Used Movable Type to allow creation and modification of content easily
• Used Cold Fusion to build and manage overall site framework, including account management and tools
• Integrated vBulletin into site for forums

RESULT

The site presents a seamless face to users, but is easy to run an maintain. Content contributors are free to just write, rather than requiring a Ph.D. in Engineering to make site updates.