Explore McAllen can best be described by McAllen’s Retail and Business Development Director, Rebecca M. Olaguibel. “Explore McAllen is the best way to keep up with all of the fun and excitement happening in the city.” As you can imagine, a city that’s always on-the-go will surely have a spurring nightlife, concerts, community events and eateries that many will want to know more about. For some time, though, Explore’s website needed a bit of an oomph to better reflect the liveliness and character that the city had. That’s where we came in.
A Better Look
Explore’s previous design, although providing all of the insight to the goings-on in McAllen, lacked what the city itself is known for; character. It was also in need of vibrant colors that stood out and caught people’s eyes as well. With so much happening in the city, we really wanted to push the creative and fun side of McAllen within the site itself. This meant adding more color, adopting an easier method of navigation and, perhaps most importantly, making it mobile responsive.
These days, when out and about, almost everyone will look for something to do through a mobile device. Explore McAllen was in dire need of a mobile responsive site for this very reason. Not only that, Explore also has a strong social media presence, so how can a website that’s big on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter not be mobile-friendly?
Getting Creative
Cesar Gonzalez is our Lead Web Developer and, with our team of savvy techs, came up with a blueprint of what the new website design would encompass.
“We’ve been working with Rebecca for some time, so when she came to us with a request for a new look, we knew that it had to be big, lively and loud,” Cesar Gonzalez said. He and his team put their thoughts and plans together to create a new design that better highlighted everything that made McAllen great.
It first came down to designing integrated navigation tabs that needed to be clean and crisp. This led to easy-to-read drop-down menus that contained more details upon each section. Cesar Gonzalez and his team wanted for the new site’s design to be explosive in its presentation so visitors knew without a doubt that there is always something to do in McAllen.
“One of the challenging aspects of this build was designing that explosive feel while maintaining a level of cohesion and consistency. I think we did well in working towards that balance,” he added.
Working with Words
When it came to content, we knew that, in order to really push the different things to do in the city, the writing had to be creative.
“Fortunately, a majority of the content on the previous site was transferred over to the new one since it was still relevant and informative for visitors. There were some small rewrites, but overall, it was great as-is,” said Michael Martinez, our Content Director.
Josie is one of our content writers and social media strategists who handles Explore McAllen. “I’m really excited for followers on social to see the new site. They’ve been loyal for so long, so to see their reaction to this big change is something I’m really looking forward to. As for writing, I know that with my style, it’ll mesh really well with the new design.”
Build Your Online Presence
We take pride in the work we do for our clients, and we make the strongest efforts for each of them. Olaguibel had this to say on her experience working with us, “My expectations for the new website were completely surpassed! The team at IIS is highly responsive and intuitive to their clients’ needs; truly a first class operation.”
If you’re in need of a new website, an updated look, social media help or fresh content, then contact our digital marketing agency in McAllen today to learn more about what we can do for you.