Below is a sampling of the custom websites we have designed and/or developed on the Open Source WordPress blogging platform.

You can also see our sites off WordPress themes here.

 

BESA – Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

The client: The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies is a research think tank that focuses on the search for security and peace for Israel.

Services ordered: Website Design and Development of a WordPress website

About the project: Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies had an old, old website (No really, look at the before and after shots below) with hundreds of HTML files, no CMS, and desperately needed a new site that they could manage themselves. Every time they needed a new article uploaded, they had to send it to the University’s webmaster to upload. Ugh! So, we ported the site to WordPress, designed a shiny and modern new website, complete with:

• A thorough planning stage full of wireframes galore
• Custom Post Types for Books
• A curated homepage that allows them to hand-pick any post they want to display, and how the post should be formatted (image on top, image on left, image on right, you get the idea)
• Manual related posts (They wanted a lot of control)
• Souped up Researchers section that highlights each author and links to their publications
• Handy-dandy PDF viewer for all the many PDFs

And… launch!

Here it is… the before and after:

 

F5 Traffix

The client:  F5 Traffix is a big player in the hi-tech arena as a leading provider of 4G Diameter signaling products for telecommunications service providers.

Services ordered: Design and Development of a WordPress website

About the project: F5 Traffix is recognized as a leader in the mobile communications field, so we were understandably excited to help them redesign their website.

F5 Traffix challenged us to give their site a new modern design based off key elements of their branding, such as the diagonal line from the ‘x’ in their logo and the green and blue color scheme. The two major focuses of their site were to establish their expertise as leaders in diameter and 4G and to acquire and track potential leads from different forms throughout the site.

Here are some of the features on the F5 Traffix website:

• Salesforce-integrated forms in various places on the site: in a fancybox before downloading the White Paper, in a fancybox after watching the Demo video, on the Ask an Expert page (this is also a Gravity Form), on the Contact page, on the customer login page and in the newsletter subscription widget.
• On the homepage, a removable feature banner with an editable image, link and text area.
• Dynamic widget areas on the homepage, in sidebars and in the footer.
• Custom widgets, including:
  • News widget: pulls in posts from the “News” custom post type
  • Download Whitepaper Button Widget: requests contact information before downloading a PDF
  • Video Button Widget: asks for contact information after watching a video in a lightbox.
  • Newsletter subscription: sends new email addresses to SalesForce
  • Image widget – includes space for the image, a title and when you click on it, it opens in a fancybox.

• Custom sidebars for every page. Every single product and use cases page has its own sidebar. The client can create new sidebars in the future as well, inserting whatever widgets they please into each sidebar.
• Ask an Expert page: F5 Traffix wanted to present the wide range of experts in their company and giving people the opportunity to ask their experts questions. In order to achieve these goals, we created the Ask an Expert page. It is designed to display all the experts with their name, photo, title, and an “Ask the Expert” button. All the content on the Ask an Expert is editable by the client and was created using a custom post type.

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

The client: Headed by Dr. Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a leading independent research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy.

Services ordered: Design and Development of a WordPress website and blog

About the project: When JCPA asked us to re-design their website from scratch, we had to create a layout that would feature a wide variety of publication-types and make the site user friendly for researchers and non-researchers alike.

One of the greatest challenges in such a content rich site is creating a system whereby visitors can find what they are looking for. The result is:

1. A homepage that lets people get a glimpse of the different types of content in a visual and inviting way by using multiple sliders.
2. An advanced search functionality so that researchers, or other hearty souls interested in sifting through Middle East politics could find information according to post type (blog posts, events, publications, programs, video, articles) or by date or even by category (Anti-Semitism, Iran, Middle East, etc.)
3. Custom post types that differentiate between posts, events, article, publications, videos and programs.
4. A few custom page layouts like the video page and the authors page.

 

Tzachi Hanegbi

The client: Tzachi Hanegbi

Services ordered: Development of Hebrew WordPress site

About the project: Tzachi Hanegbi is a prominent figure in Israeli politics.  illuminea developed a website that would be clean, professional, and informative. The website features articles and videos in both Hebrew and English.

We also created an easy-to-manage custom options panel for Tzachi’s team to organize the homepage content with a drag and drop editor and a way to easily set videos to open in a FancyBox.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for the effort you invested in creating my website. There is no doubt that you have succeeded in creating an excellent, high quality website.”

-Tzachi Hanegbi, Member of Knesset

 

Ramah Israel

The client: Ramah Israel is the camping arm of Conservative Judaism and offers 4 programs in Israel: Ramah Israel Institute (RII), Tichron Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY) – Jerusalem High School, Jerusalem Day Camp, and Ramah Seminar.

Services ordered: Design and devleopment of 1 main site and 4 program websites on the WordPress platform

About the project: Ramah Israel needed a major makeover. Their website was stuck in the 90’s and needed to be redone in a major way.

Ramah Main Website before and after

For Ramah’s main site, illuminea created a customized, clean design with a Jquery slider, helping visitors navigate to the program of their choice. The slider is the central part of the homepage and it features vibrant, fun photos and an explanation when you mouse over each program.

Ramah’s four program websites are designed off of the main site’s design and they also have clean, organized content, with a young, fun, and colorful vibe.

More special features

Makom Israel

The client: Makom trains leaders and creates educational content to embrace the vibrant complexity of Israel: The People and the Place. It is a partnership of Jewish communities around the world and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Services ordered: Development of Hebrew and English websites on the WordPress MultiSite platform and creating a network where educators can discuss all topics concerning education and Israel (still in development).

About the project: By the time Makom hired us to redo their site, they needed to streamline their web presence from a few different sites into a single content-rich website. The overall design of the site reflects a fun educational feel with a focus on presenting the content in a clean and organized way. We especially love the cute, handrawn-looking custom icons in the main navigation.

Special feature:  Makom uses music and song lyrics as an educational resource on their website and wanted to make the directory of musicians a dynamic section of the site. The Artist Focus is a visual directory of musicians. Once you choose a musician, you can select an album and browse through a self-loading, Jquery-based album to see each song’s music video and lyrics. Listen here.

Makom Israel before and after

Tene Capital

Tene Capital is one of Israel’s leading private equity firms. Their site is based off a custom design which was converted with a high level of accuracy (pixel for pixel) into a completely manageable WordPress site.

Among other things, their unique design and technological needs included:

• A password protected login area for each of their limited partners, each one leading to a different area of the site where they receive relevant information including updates regarding their investments.
• At the bottom of every page is a sliding gallery of the companies in their portfolio. We created this function so that they have full control over the list of companies showing.

• The photos in the individual staff members’ about pages are a unique gallery.

These elements presented Tene Investment Funds with a high level, professional, and easy to manage website.

Jewish Interactive

The client: Jewish Interactive is an innovative non-profit organization, founded in South Africa, that makes Jewish learning fun and engaging by blending digital technology and Jewish traditions.

Services ordered: Pressed WordPress site

About the project: Jewish Interactive needed to redesign their content-rich site, and create a fresh and fun website to highlight their products and resources to students, teachers, and parents, and we made sure each group can find the section they’re looking for.

illuminea planned the site with the client, and selected a template that best met their needs.

Jewish Interactive Before and After 

Jerusalem Sudbury Democratic School

The client: The Democratic school is a high school in Jerusalem with a unique educational process, with the core belief of self-directed education for all students.

Services ordered: Development of a Hebrew WordPress site

About the project: The Democratic School needed a new site design that would help people visiting the site understand what this unique school has to offer with the central goal of exposing the school to potential new students and their parents.

illuminea planned the site with the client, guiding their designer through the design process. The project culminated in the development of a user-friendly, professional and colorful site.

 

StartApp Website

The client: StartApp is a startup that helps mobile app developers monetize their free applications for mobile phones.

Services provided:

• Development of a WordPress website
• Dynamic custom page designs

About the project: illuminea developed the StartApp website and blog on WordPress so that StartApp could promote their monetization and distribution platform and easily manage a very dynamic site.

StartApp needed many different types of content for which we created custom post types:

• Featured Apps slider on the Homepage: Client can easily add text and an image to the slider.
• Dynamic content area on the Homepage: Allows the client to highlight mentions and accreditation
• Staff member bios on the About page: Enables the user to easily add/remove staff members to the interactive, circular design based on jQuery functionality.
• FAQs: Client can add/remove a question to the FAQs which is a list of expandable questions and answers.

The StartApp site is extremely dynamic, giving the client the ability to edit almost all the content on their own, including the more complex pages.

StartApp Landing Page

The client: StartApp is a startup that helps mobile app developers monetize their free applications for mobile phones.

Services provided: Design and development of a temporary landing page on WordPress

About the project: StartApp.com needed a place-holder until the final website was ready so illuminea created a landing page on WordPress which integrated their branding while giving a friendly yet professional feel. The page included links to their social networks and blog and it provided visitors with basic information about the service StartApp provides.

Matara: Jewish Residential Treatment Center for Teen Boys in Israel

About Matara: Matara is a Jewish residential treatment center and a family-based therapeutic boarding school in Israel for teenage boys. Matara offers the latest in diagnostic and treatment modalities and simultaneously a warm Jewish setting in order to help students grow in every aspect of their lives.

About the project: illuminea was requested to design a logo and a website.
The logo illustrates Matara’s vision of creating a supportive environment through which the challenging teenager can reach his potential.

The primary goal of the Matara site was to assist in recruiting boys for their program by expressing the professionalism and belief system of the Matara program immediately and clearly.

illuminea worked closely with the client to create a site that presented the feel of the school – warmth, professionalism and Jewishness. Also, in order to create a personal touch, illuminea implemented a WordPress site with a photo slider on the homepage, a blog/news area, photo galleries, multiple contact forms and a customized staff page.

WordCamp Jerusalem 2011

About the Project: WordCamp is an annual conference about WordPress that takes place in cities around the world. illuminea has organized WordCamp for the last two years in Israel. WordCampJerusalem.com As illuminea set out to organize another WordCamp, we decided to redesign the site to create a more visually appealing design that would highlight speakers, sponsors, the schedule, and registration.

Special features of the site:

• The custom design expresses the fusion of modern technology and ancient Jerusalem.
• The homepage is split into widget areas which allowed us to add/delete/move content around very easily.
• Homepage custom lectures widget that automatically pulls in three of the lectures with links to the full posts.
• Homepage custom speakers widget that automatically pulls in the featured thumbnail images of the speakers with links to the full posts.
• People registered for the conference with Gravity Forms which automatically displayed a list of attendees on the site.
• The speakers and lectures were inserted as blog posts and categorized accordingly so that they would be automatically listed on their respective pages.

NatanSharansky.org

About Natan Sharansky: Natan Sharansky is a human rights activist and promoter of democratic values and freedom for all the world’s citizens. He has served in four successive Israeli governments as Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, published three bestselling books, and was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1986 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006. He serves as the Chairman of the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem as well as Chairman of One Jerusalem and Beth Hatefutsoth, the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv.

Sharansky’s site was taken down when he was elected as Chair of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

About the project: Sharansky and his staff sought to ramp up his web presence. To achieve this goal, illuminea created a comprehensive social media strategy, and mapped out the strategy of Sharansky’s blog as well. Sharansky’s site/blog is based on a custom design created in-house at the Shalem Center, which we implemented with custom programming on the WordPress platform. illuminea was also responsible for the initial content strategy, including aggregating, tagging and categorizing all of Sharansky’s previously published articles, and creating content for the pages on the site describing Sharansky’s life and achievements.

As part of this project and in line with the social media strategy developed by illuminea, Sharansky also became active on the following social networks: facebook, twitter, YouTube, delicious, and flickr.

Daniel Gordis – Dispatches from an Anxious State

DanielGordis.org

About Daniel Gordis: Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center, where he is also a senior fellow. The author of numerous books on Jewish thought and currents in Israel, Dr. Gordis was the founding dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism, the first rabbinical college on the West Coast of the United States. Dr. Gordis joined Shalem in 2007 to help found Israel’s first liberal arts college, after spending nine years as vice president of the Mandel Foundation in Israel and director of itsLeadership Institute.

About the project: Dr. Gordis had been running a site for a number of years based on an ASP platform. The platform was very limiting in its feature-set and usability, and the design was getting dated. In addition, it was worthwhile to become more active on the social networks. illuminea worked closely with the Shalem Center’s in-house graphic designer to create the new look-and-feel of Dr. Gordis’ site, along with implementing a number of custom-programmed pages and features in order to showcase the content in the best way possible.

S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co. 

About S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co.  – S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co. is a law firm that provides the services of exceptional attorneys to companies (from start-up to Fortune 500), individuals, and law firms.

About the Project: S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co. approached illuminea seeking a professional web presence that highlights SWA’s advantages – affordability and expertise. They wanted to showcase the S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co. attorneys, their accomplishments, and their experience in a wide variety of practice areas.

Using WordPress, illuminea built SWA a professional website with a variety of features and advanced customization.

Here are some of the features on the S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co. site:

• Customized attorney photo gallery with an easy to manage user interface
• Unique, professional, and clean design with lots of white space
• Homepage slider that features each attorney, their thumbnail image, their credentials, and a link to the attorney’s bio on the site.
• Customized sidebar widget promotes S. Wimpfheimer, Aronoff & Co.’s publications, news, and video.
• Customized attorney profile pages with a unique layout to display their photo, contact details, linked in profile, and experience.

Achiya: Learn that you can

About Achiya: Achiya is a non-profit organization that helps children with learning disabilities in the ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel. They also offer a teacher’s training program in special education.

About the Project: Achiya wanted their new website to emphasize that they assist the three sectors of the population most affected by children with disabilities: the parents, the teachers and, of course, the children themselves. It was also of utmost importance that there be a prominent call for donations and a space to show updates on the development of their new community center.

illuminea redid the Achiya site in both English and Hebrew with a unique, custom design and implemented it on the WordPress MultiSite platform so that they can easily manage the two language sites from one central dashboard.

 

Kayema

The client:Kayema is a company that provides investment and management solutions for renewable energy.

Services ordered: Design and development of a WordPress website

About the project: Kayema requested a site that would be very easy to navigate, like an online business card that would help potential clients/investors quickly understand what Kayema does. illuminea made sure to prominently display the three main services on the homepage of their site and provide an easy way to contact the company from anywhere in the site.

 

AV Israel

The client: AV Israel is a non-profit that helps children with hearing impairment maximize their hearing and lead independant lives.

Services ordered:

• Design and development of Hebrew and English websites on the WordPress MultiSite platform.
• Set up of donations and event payments

About the project: AV Israel wanted a website in both Hebrew and English that would have an easy to manage donations system. illuminea set up the payment on the site by integrating Gravity Forms with PayPal.

Their site needed to be designed expressing both the professional and child-friendly nature. The website needed to aesthetically feature images and videos of the children. illuminea added an image slider into the internal page’s sidebar and a video gallery both of which are easy to customize.

A Sweet Life

The client: A Sweet Life is an online magazine about diabetes

Services ordered: Development of a WordPress website

About the project: A Sweet Life is a content-rich magazine with many different types of content which needed special attention:

• Each content type such as Recipes, Tips, and In the News, has its own unique sidebar which displays related sub-categories.
• There is an option to search only recipes. There are also recipe star-ratings which appear on each recipe and in the Recipes sidebar.
• Ask the Expert has a list of expandable questions and answers.
• Bloggers are featured on the homepage sidebar including their photo, title, and excerpt of their most recent post.
• The feature slider on the Homepage rotates, showing pieces the client wishes to highlight.
• Space for ads and ad management

HonestReporting

About HonestReporting: To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately, HonestReporting monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and effects change through education and action.

About the Project: HonestReporting approached illuminea to redesign their logo and website. illuminea created a logo that demonstrates HonestReporting’s commitment to monitoring truth in the media. HonestReporting needed to migrate a very large amount of content from their old site to their new WordPress site for better content management. They also wanted a complete redesign to highlight their featured content in a more dynamic way. illuminea integrated their UK site and their blog into HonestReporting.com to keep visitors on their site longer. illuminea implemented ways for users to engage with HonestReporting through links to social media profiles, comment ratings, and a weekly question. In addition, illuminea provided HonestReporting with a basic mobile version of the site.

Israel Online Ambassadors Contest

About Israel Online Ambassadors: A network of Israel advocates who use online means in order to defend Israel against attacks on it in the public opinion areas.

About the Project: With over 21,000 fans on facebook (um…wow!) Israel Online Ambassadors  turned to illuminea to help drive even more traffic to Facebook! They created a contest that would drive traffic to their Facebook page and encourage users to “Like” their page and become Israel online ambassadors by filling out the form to capture their details.We developed the contest site on WordPress to send a unique URL to each participant to share with friends and family. The unique URL with the most clicks wins the contest. illuminea also set up a contest management system in the admin area for IOA to track new contest participants, participants’ information, and the winner.

 

See more sites in our portfolio »

 

More sites:

(we will write them up as soon as we have more of that elusive medium called time)

• NGO Monitor blog
• Pele
• Kayema
• Commtouch Cafe
• israelplug
• Wallis
• MyContent blog
• Eretz Yisrael Movement
• Dancing with Pain
• Digital Eve Israel
• Statsure
• Larry Lockerman
• Debi’Z SEO Coaching
• David M. Weinberg
• JewishMom
• illuminea College
• Loolwa
• Joel Abramson
• Israelity
• iG5 Authoring Tools