PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of chemicals that don’t break down in the environment. They are ubiquitous in products ranging from waterproof apparel to greaseproof food packaging to dental floss and more. Our widespread exposure to PFAS combined with little public awareness has harmful outcomes.
PFAS Exchange is a website to address that awareness gap - helping people understand their exposures and take action to protect their health.
The Pitfalls of WordPress Pagebuilders
The original PFAS Exchange website was built in WordPress using a pagebuilder called WPBakery. Pagebuilder plugins and themes provide a drag-and-drop overlay that allows web developers to quickly design and build a website. The unfortunate tradeoff is a brittle content management system that is difficult to edit and update over time.
Often this rigidity discourages or even prevents the communications team from keeping the website content updated and relevant. This is exactly what happened with the PFAS Exchange. With a cumbersome editing process, other work took priority, and the PFAS Exchange aged in both visual design and relevance to site visitors.
A Redesign That is High Quality, Budget Friendly, and Sustainable
We needed to redesign and rebuild the PFAS Exchange within a strict $45,000 budget. Using the existing pagebuilder would have helped us move quickly to meet the budget, but done nothing to improve accessibility and sustainability.. Fortunately, new features in the core WordPress project provide a quick build and simple editing workflow without compromising on web best practices.
To deliver a website that meets our design and development standards without breaking the bank, we’ve leaned into using the WordPress Full Site Editor and Block Editor, developing synced patterns for unique content layouts. Pixels and Pulp, our design partner, designed a beautiful website and we consulted on page layouts and components that worked with WordPress’s out-of-the-box functionality.
The result is a fresh look that is sustainable, relying on very little custom code that fit within the budget. The website is easy for the PFAS Exchange communications team to edit, and with the website on the open source superhighway, updating plugins and under-the-hood maintenance is simple.
Multilingual Done Right
The PFAS Exchange is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, ensuring critical information is accessible to a wider audience. We were proud to include this functionality within the budget constraints, with a configuration that’s sustainable for website editors.
The WPML plugin has a long and proven track record for reliable multilingual functionality.
We trained the PFAS Exchange communications team on best practices for writing for the web. With the site built close to WordPress core, their well-structured and readable content lends itself to clean, translated copy.
Conclusion
With a disciplined approach to WordPress functionality, we delivered a website that clearly communicates PFAS exposure risks to those most affected. The website is structured so that communications team members can easily maintain the content in three languages. As the information about PFAS chemicals evolves, the website can continue to be the critical resource it is for years to come.
Leave a comment