Client: American National Section of the International Association of Penal Law
Web Site: The AIDP Blog
Designer: Lara Chelak
Content Management System: WordPress
Style: liquid layout, oranges, blues, professional, lots of features, minimalist, sleek
Status: Online
Project Summary:
The new AIDP blog has quite a bit to offer in terms of "souped up" blog features. This blog is the new home to (at the time of this post) twelve different bloggers posting on a variety of topics. From the official description: "The AIDP is the oldest association of criminal law specialists in the world and one of the oldest scientific associations. This blog serves as a discussion site for all things law, with a focus upon criminal law, comparative criminal justice, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, war crimes, international criminal tribunals, human rights and counterterrorism law & policy."

Since there were quite a few bloggers who weren't extremely tech-savvy, a special permissions plugin was used to restrict what each blogger could edit so no part of the design would go awry by accident. Each blogger has their own personal biography page which they can edit, along with a personal CAPTCHA contact form which forwards any reader messages to their e-mail address.

A special manipulation of the WordPress "loop" was used to display certain posts in certain areas. A special "Tribunal Materials" tool was created to showcase various media items the bloggers wished to post. Along with this special archive, a slick "months and posts" archive plugin was used.

Various subscription opportunities for the blog's feed are located on the right sidebar. AIDP took our suggestion to use Feedburner for all their subscription needs. Users can subscribe via e-mail to the feed, view the total number of subscribers, or add AIDP's feed to more than ten different feed readers.

A variety of post features were also used. A "share this" link was placed beneath each post allowing readers to e-mail the post to a friend, or add it to popular social networking sites such as digg and technorati. Additionally a "Print This" feature was also included. This link leads the reader to a black and white, easily printable version of the current post.

But wait! There's more! Each post features a small author head shot. This was a nice touch that allows for more personality in the blog. This feature can also be applied to comments, and more.

We had a fantastic time working with AIDP to create their new blog. We hope you like the project as well, and will consider Blog What? Design for your next project!