How Alloy transformed the Atlanta Beltline’s digital presence using Storyblok

The Atlanta Beltline, with the help of Alloy, successfully transitioned from a WordPress-based site to a decoupled architecture using Storyblok’s Content Management System (CMS), resulting in significant performance improvements:

The transition to Storyblok brought transformative improvements in speed while enhancing overall user experience and operational efficiency: 

• Enhanced speed and performance: The shift to Storyblok resulted in a drastic improvement in page loading speeds, significantly enhancing user experience across devices.
• Streamlined content workflows: Implementing Storyblok's content approval workflows addressed previous challenges with content management, empowering non-technical users.
• Improved scalability and flexibility: The component-based architecture of Storyblok allowed the Atlanta Beltline to easily adapt to changing digital needs and integrate third-party systems.

Key Storyblok features played a crucial role in enhancing the Atlanta Beltline's content management processes, ensuring efficient collaboration, consistency, and ease of use for all team members:

• Content API: Storyblok's Content API facilitated the seamless migration and management of over 1,400 pages of content.
• Content approval workflows: Streamlined processes ensuring the right content is edited by the right team members, reducing errors and inefficiencies.
• Component-based structure: Enabled the creation of reusable content modules with numerous options and variants, improving consistency and reducing redundancy.
• Visual Editor: A visually intuitive editor experience, facilitating ease of use for non-technical team members and fostering quicker adoption.

The following tech integrations are included in the Atlanta Beltline’s new platform: 

• Next.js and Vercel: Leveraged for seamless hosting and rendering of the site, ensuring fast delivery and scalability.
• Smart Studio: Integrated for efficient event management, allowing for direct data integration into the Beltline website.
• ArcGIS Maps: Connected for real-time mapping needs, ensuring accurate and updated geographic information without additional manual entry.
• Document Libraries and APIs: Enhanced functionality with integrations for donation forms and job boards, all managed directly through Storyblok.

The Atlanta Beltline 

The Atlanta Beltline is a transformative urban development project aimed at enhancing community connectivity in Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Beltline project is distinctive due to its collaboration between two organizations: Atlanta Beltline Inc., responsible for trail development, and the Atlanta Beltline Partnership, a nonprofit focused on fundraising and community programs. 

Challenges and Requirements

This partnership introduces unique challenges, as both organizations contribute content to a shared website that hadn't been updated in over a decade, resulting in more than 4,500 pages of outdated information, including community meeting notes, presentations, and various public documents. With a wide range of stakeholders—including residents, visitors, local businesses, and donors—there was a critical need to streamline communication and navigation to effectively serve diverse community needs, from construction updates to resources for small businesses. 

Their previous digital presence was hosted on WordPress, which posed several challenges:

• Content approval workflows: The existing system lacked an effective process for content approval, leading to disorganized content management and multiple users editing simultaneously.
• Scalability issues: The WordPress site struggled to manage increasing traffic and content demands, prompting concerns from hosting providers regarding performance strain.
• Flexibility and future readiness: The need for a system that could adapt to future technological changes and integrate seamlessly with third-party applications.

To tackle these challenges head-on, the Atlanta Beltline team partnered with the talented professionals at Alloy, a Storyblok partner known for their unique blend of creativity and purpose. Both teams knew that the migration process was going to be both extensive and complex. This transition involved carefully assessing and refining the vast amount of existing content to ensure it was accurately and effectively represented in the new environment, streamlining access and enhancing usability for visitors. 

Future-ready: How Storyblok transformed the Atlanta Beltline's digital landscape

The team at Atlanta Beltline had a clear vision for their future. They compared their plan for updating their digital infrastructure to laying dark fiber beneath the trail, creating a hidden network that supports future technologies like light rail transit. This comparison highlights their commitment to building a flexible and adaptable digital environment that can grow with changing technology. Just as dark fiber prepares for advancements in transportation, the Beltline’s approach ensures their digital landscape is ready for tomorrow’s needs.

To achieve this vision, they chose Storyblok for its perfect balance of flexibility for developers and ease of use for content editors. While evaluating various decoupled CMS platforms, the team found that Storyblok provided a much better editing experience compared to other headless CMSs in the market, which came with either much higher price tags or a much more limiting editor experience. This choice was key in helping them create a digital ecosystem that meets their current and future needs.

Storyblok’s focus on empowering content editors and marketers, along with its robust content approval workflows and component-based architecture, aligned perfectly with the Beltline's goal of creating a more streamlined and manageable digital presence. Additionally, Storyblok’s integration capabilities ensured that the organization could easily connect with essential third-party systems, allowing for a future-ready solution that could evolve alongside their technological needs.

The power of Storyblok

In their quest for a modern digital experience, the Atlanta Beltline harnessed Storyblok’s powerful tools to streamline content management and enhance user engagement: 

• Content Approval Workflows: Storyblok's robust approval processes provided clarity on who could edit and publish content, drastically reducing miscommunication among team members.
• Component-Based architecture: This allowed the Atlanta Beltline to create dynamic and reusable content modules, accommodating diverse content types and maintaining a cohesive look and feel across the site.
• Integration capability: The ability to pull in data from external APIs (like Smart Studio and ArcGIS) ensured the site remained current and functional without cumbersome manual updates.
• Content API: Storyblok's Content API facilitated the seamless migration and management of the vast amount of content, allowing for efficient data retrieval and integration while ensuring that all pages of content were organized and accessible in the new system.

The results included significant performance improvements that transformed the user experience and streamlined content management for the Atlanta Beltline team. Main content now loads three times faster on mobile and 40% faster on desktop compared to the previous site, while enhanced content approval workflows empower users to manage content effectively on a daily basis. Additionally, the transition from a cumbersome WordPress structure to a flexible modular system has simplified the management of over 1,400 pages, making the entire process more efficient.

And that’s not all! Alloy was recognized with prestigious industry honors at the 19th Annual w3 Awards, presented by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. For the fifth consecutive year, Alloy has been celebrated for exceptional website and UX design on behalf of the Atlanta Beltline.

To conclude, by leveraging Storyblok, the Atlanta Beltline not only resolved their immediate challenges but also positioned themselves for future growth and adaptability in the digital space. The successful migration and implementation serve as a model for similar organizations seeking to modernize their web presence while enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.