Website Design for Disaster.Com

Business Description

Disaster.com is being launched as a site that enables and fosters communications between individuals affected by, or interested in, disasters and crises. The domain has been owned since 1992 and we feel it's time to give back to the Internet community. There will be four primary components to the website - a message board/forum, a series of articles about disasters and crises, a gallery for people to place appropriate pictures into, and a "store" with affiliate based products to be used to offset the cost of running the site. Down the road, we will also be creating a person finder application for use during disasters.

Articles/Posts and Forum topics will include natural disasters, how to help, world and regional conflicts, terrorism, preparing for disasters, and business related disaster topics. These themes should be considered as the design is put together.

Description of pages required

PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE STARTING YOUR DESIGNS!! YOU WILL GET 1 OR 2 STARS, OR BE DISQUALIFIED, IF YOU DO NOT INCORPORATE AS MANY OF THE INSTRUCTIONS AS POSSIBLE. I CAN BUY TEMPLATES FOR $39 ONLINE. I AM NOT LOOKING FOR YOU TO JUST TAKE MY REQUIREMENTS BELOW AND POSITION THEM IN AN EXISTING TEMPLATE. THESE TYPES OF ENTRIES WILL BE GIVEN 1 STAR OR EXCLUDED FROM THE CONTEST. YOU CAN START WITH A TEMPLATE/FRAMEWORK AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE RIGHTS TO DO SO AND THE SITE IS UNIQUE WHEN COMPLETE.

Primary focus of the homepage needs to be:

Priority 1:
If there is a disaster, there needs to be a spot just below the header to highlight information and resources regarding it. When there is no active disaster, this will not appear.

Priority 2:
Headlines
Five Latest Stories (with picture and excerpt)
Five Latest Forum Discussions (with excerpt)
Live Twitter Feed combining several different searches
Links (8) to Popular Forums

Priority 3:
2-4 Gallery Thumbnails
RSS Feeds with at least 10 entries (for example, GDACS.com Feed)
Author List (5-7 authors with pictures)

Priority 4:
Affiliate Links and/or graphics for products for sale (up to 10)
Advertising
Banner somewhere on top (728x90)
Different ad sizes on other parts of page (sidebar, footer, etc.), interspersed with affiliates, links to other pages, etc.
Size options: 300x600, 250x250, 200x200, 160x600

Navigation:
Forums
Resources
Store
Online Chat
Gallery
About Us

The header should be eye catching and contain the logo, tagline, a search box (selectable for main site/forum search) and social icons (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ - others later).

The footer should also be eye catching and include:
Direct links to certain content on site (articles in the resources directory)
Latest news
Links to Forums, online chat, gallery, about us and support
Social links
Link to Privacy policy
Copyright notice

Further requirements

This design will be used in WORDPRESS (keep in mind while you're designing), and within ip.board or vBulletin forum software. Contest is for the home page, but design elements (like the general structure, header, footer, sidebars) should be re-usable for secondary Wordpress pages and the forum site.

If certain design elements require the use of a commercial plugin/widget or templates, please note this to me in a message. Any typestyles used should be available as a webfont and either free, or under $50, for commercial use.

We assume that, because of the nature of the site, a significant portion of the traffic will be from phones and tablets. Therefore, we're looking for a design that is easily made responsive and takes into account touch based navigation. As the majority of traffic will still, most likely, be from desktop devices, it can't be completely focused on the mobile aspect.

I'm a firm believer in the use of typography and would recommend the use of Google webfonts - one for headlines and a complimentary one for body type. Navigation or other areas may need an additional face. The logo face is most similar to the following Google Web Fonts: Rokkit, Crete round, Antic slab, Sanchez, Adamina and Alfa Slab One. I prefer the use of spot color on the page to make aspects of the page stand out - but with the remainder of the page being fairly neutral.

Any design created should be capable of becoming a responsive design. Don't crowd the page and make it difficult to set up as responsive. I WOULD APPRECIATE EXAMPLES OF WHAT THE PAGE MIGHT LOOK LIKE WHEN RESPONSIVE AND REDUCED IN WIDTH. RESPONSIVE ASPECTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN DESIGNING NAVIGATION.

Because this is a resource site, the focus is on the content. Each article/post will have an associated graphic with it, and I'd like to include these graphics on the home page. However, it is important to have content "above the fold".

File types:

You'll need to provide your design in PSD format.