Wed, 27 Aug 2008
Kintera, a technology company that provides integrated, on-demand open platform fundraising tools for non-profit organisations, has judged Sesame Workshop's website www.sesameworkshop.org winner the Most Creative Website Rebranding Award
The award was announced at the Annual Kintera User Conference in
Washington, DC, where hundreds of non-profit staffers from
organisations both large and small gathered to learn more about new
technologies in online fundraising and to recognize the work of their
peers. The theme of this year's conference was "Raising the Bar."
Sesameworkshop.org and sesamestreet.org relaunched earlier this
month on 11 August, after two years of extensive research and
development. Sesameworkshop.org tells the many stories behind the
organisation's work with children over the past 40 years. Through
compelling video, stories, and interviews, users will see firsthand how
the Workshop impacts children from Bangladesh to Egypt to Kosovo. The
Sesame Workshop site, which includes a new streamlined e-philanthropy
area, will also allow current and potential donors to easily support
the organisation's mission.
Sesamestreet.org introduces a safe and interactive experience
designed to engage and educate children and their caregivers.
Completely free of charge to all users, highlights of the websites
include: hundreds of Flash-based games and activities featuring
favorite Sesame Street characters to help preschoolers prepare for
school; nearly 3 000 classic and current Sesame Street videos; and
preschooler-friendly applications. Research-driven, the site offers
many points of differentiation, all meant to provide kids with the most
satisfying web experience possible, including: a Muppet Home Page,
where users are greeted by a live action Muppet host who introduces the
featured theme of the day; PlaySAFE, which prevents children from
navigating away to other sites on their own; a star cursor since
research indicates children do not have a strong visual response to the
arrow image; hot spots and sparkles as children need an over visual
indicator to determine what areas they can access on the site; Sesame
videos and playlists, currently featuring over 1,000 playlists and
3,000 classic and current videos, which will expand to over 10,000
videos by the end of 2009; parenting and caregiver tips that relate to
what their child is doing on the site; and over 400 Flash-based
mini-games and nearly 90 full games, both interactive and
keyboard-based.
Sesame Workshop was fortunate to assemble a creative team of
multiple vendors from around the globe. These partners were led by
Magnani Caruso Dutton, Firefly Interactive and Cignex who helped
design, develop and integrate the complex functionality of this new
site. Kintera Inc. provides the fundraising functionality for the
websites.
