A Kit of Parts: Brand Consistency & Development Stability
A kit of parts typically describes a set of pre-designed components or modules that you can assemble in various ways to create a customizable product. In the context of a website, a kit of parts (KOP) refers to a website builder or content management system that provides a library of pre-built components, such as page templates, and other features, that users can easily assemble and customize to create their own unique sites.
A kit of parts system is a great option for users who want to create a customized website quickly and easily, without advanced web development skills. The following are some benefits of a KOP solution.
- Ease of use: Kit of parts systems typically offer a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, making it simple for users to add and arrange components without needing technical skills or experience.
- Speed: Because the components are pre-designed and pre-built, users can quickly create a website by assembling these components rather than building everything from scratch.
- Customization: Although the components are pre-designed, they can often be customized to an extent, allowing users to craft websites that better meet their specific needs and preferences.
- Cost-effectiveness: Using a KOP website can be more cost-effective than creating a custom website from scratch.
- Maintenance: Because KOP website components are managed by the website builder or content management system, users don't have to worry about maintaining the underlying code or infrastructure themselves.
At Velir, we’re always collaborating with our clients to improve the digital experiences we create and manage for them. One of our foundation partners, whom we’ve worked with for more than a decade, came to us with some goals they wanted to accomplish with their digital experience platform. Their priorities were:
- Efficiency — In-site development and ongoing management.
- Consistency — Presentation and user experiences that reinforce brand attributes.
- Security — One unified platform rather than a collection of disparate, vulnerable websites.
The foundation has over 50 different websites in its universe — ranging from small campaign sites to larger full sites. Many of these sites were spun up quickly and because of that, eventually, there wasn’t brand governance or a central place to manage all of them.
So, we pitched the foundation an opportunity to expand its platform into a KOP solution. This solution establishes a baseline set of repeatable components that not only align with the foundation’s brand standards but also support a variety of content and functional needs. It would also allow us to create a new website for any of the foundation’s needs, with zero to minimal developer involvement, and produce an easy authoring experience in one single environment.
To decide what components to add to the KOP, we audited the client’s website ecosystem and built a component matrix of what already existed among the sites. Then we did extensive research and interviews with our stakeholders to determine what new components should be added to the kit. And we set out to create a KOP that provided intuitive navigation, immersive components for brand storytelling, and clear data presentations for the client to showcase their charitable work.
Example Components from the Client’s Kit of Parts
In-Page Jump Links
Our in-page jump links component that we developed immerses audiences in the foundation’s storytelling and allows them to intuitively navigate to subsections of content on a specific page.
Strategic Frameworks
Our strategic frameworks component we built allows the Foundation to offer clear data presentations that help showcase their charitable work.
Scrolling Textbox Over Media
The scrolling textbox over media component seamlessly guides users through a narrative, revealing layers of information as they scroll, creating an immersive and engaging storytelling experience
Our foundation client has been very pleased with the KOP we’ve built for them. They benefit from brand consistency, broad out-of-the-box functionality, efficient and repeatable development, and proactive design updates. Their new solution is a much easier-to-manage platform of sites with similar, brand-aligned design, navigation, and functionality. Since we found great success with this approach, we believe it could benefit many clients, not just those in our mission-driven nonprofits and NGOs portfolio.
Want us to build a KOP for your organization? Not sure whether a KOP is right for you? Contact us. We’re happy to help you figure out a system that will work best for your team’s unique needs.