Delft MaMa Website Relaunch

We are very excited to announce the relaunch of our newly designed Delft MaMa website! This was an almost-two-year project which counted on the participation of a number of volunteers.

The First Delft MaMa Website Revamp Journey

The Delft MaMa volunteers first revamped the website in 2016. Back then the volunteers involved in the project wanted to modernize the website with more information, a better structure and a regular blog. At that time the team also worked on the DMM social media accounts and the newsletter. The idea was to show people that the programs were regular. During those years it was not always easy to get new moms to come to the playgroups.

The team worked long and hard to make sure that they had the perfect design and up-to-date information. Around 10 people were heavily involved in the project. Among them were Ildikó Wooning and Nareen Beales who kindly narrated the first website revamp, Emilie Yane Lopes who designed the unique Delft MaMa logo, and Tarja van Veldhoven who idealized and started the Delft MaMa Blog.

During the testing phase 20 people looked through the pages. After that the team had three days to work through all the reactions previously to the website launch.

It was a lot of work but it really paid off. The new website looked very sleek and modern. The Delft mamas were very proud of the outcome. The team also had a photo shoot with a photographer mom, Erika Brouwer-Golhova. Everyone got awesome pictures in the park. We still use that great photo in our About us section. Believe it or not, “It was in March, and God, it was cold, but everyone was wearing summer dresses and was freezing” tells Ildikó. Things you do for a good cause!

In 2017 Ildikó also ran the crowdfunding for the 10th anniversary, which gifted us with the beautiful Delft MaMa Mosaic. 

From there the website has counted on a team of volunteers who do a great job keeping it up to date!

Reward and Recognition

Since then, many new mamas and papas came from all corners of the world to join the Delft MaMa community. In 2019 more than 16 thousand visitors viewed the website. The award-winning Delft MaMa blog had one thousand visitors to its 24 posts that year. The aforementioned prize of the Parenting Blogs Award 2019 was a great recognition for the Delft Mama volunteers. This was an outcome of the hard work and dedication to the organization and to Delft’s community.

The New Delft MaMa Website

In late 2018 the idea of a new website to best meet the needs of the community was planted: We started a website wish list! It was a collective document containing some of the main changes the DMM volunteers wanted to see in the website. The intended modifications were mostly related to usability, but they also aimed at reflecting our international, family-based community.

In September 2019 Karolina Thakker stepped in as the volunteer web-designer for this exciting project! She liaised with the communications team on surveys and user experience testings with the Delft MaMa community. This focused approach allowed us to understand how different Delft mamas use the website.

The articles and posts published on the website are a great source of inspiration and motivation for both long-term members and new mothers in the Delft area as well as for the wider community of mothers living in The Netherlands. Most often visitors use the website to read articles on the blog, search for activities, find information and useful links on parenting and pregnancy. The website is used by visitors and editors. Karolina’s main purpose with the project was to make navigation easier for both groups.

With the volunteers’ wish list and the users’ feedback, the project started becoming reality. After months of hard work, proofs, discussions and improvements, the Delft MaMa website relaunch took place on April 6th, 2020.

The Improvements To This New Version

Delft mamas can now look for information with the help of a simplified main menu bar and a useful search button in the header. Yet, the biggest change is probably visual. We have decided to stay faithful to the well-known brand colors, but have made the layout feel brighter and more joyous.

The new website is more user-friendly. It brings together everything a newcomer family needs to know about living and parenting in Delft. Moreover, the new Delft MaMa website highly reflects our bright and diverse community.

Thanks again to our amazing volunteer team who dedicated their time and energy to give a new face to the Delft Mama website!

Biography

Gabriela Ricci is a communicator by nature, with experience in Music teaching and Publishing. She was the Delft MaMa Communications Coordinator between September 2018 and October 2019. Currently she volunteers with the DMM newsletter team and of course, helps with special DMM events here and there.

Karolina Thakker is a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator based in Delft. She uses imagination, research and empathy to inspire out-of-box solutions to current challenges. It is her mission to help innovation-driven companies to succeed by supporting their design process along the way. For more projects, please check: https://www.karolinathakker.com/