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Major plugin releases that now benefit the entire Amplify community
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Average page load time for each page on the website
Building a Smarter, Faster, and More Accessible Site
When the EFI Foundation (EFIF) set out to redesign its website, MG Strategy + Design partnered with Unrelated to create a digital home worthy of EFI’s work advancing America’s clean energy transition.
The organization produces deep research, interactive data, and policy insights that help shape the future of energy — but their website needed to better match that forward-thinking mission.
The result is a fully custom site powered by Amplify, our WordPress-based design system. It combines accessibility, speed, and flexibility into one cohesive experience — giving EFIF’s team complete creative control without sacrificing performance or consistency.
Starting with a Modular Foundation
From the beginning, our focus was on modularity and efficiency. EFIF publishes a wide range of content: reports, analysis pieces, databases, event announcements, and more. They needed a system that could evolve with them — one that didn’t require reinventing the wheel every time they launched a new report or microsite.
Using WordPress Gutenberg, we built a flexible block system inside Amplify that allows EFIF’s content team to mix and match design modules. Each block — from hero banners and callouts to complex data-driven layouts — was designed to work together seamlessly. The result is a custom design that’s as easy to build with as it is to look at.
Every layout on the site is built from these reusable blocks. The EFIF team can spin up new pages in minutes, confident that each one will look polished, consistent, and accessible out of the box.
Powered by Amplify
EFI Foundation’s site is built on Amplify, Unrelated’s WordPress product designed for high-performance, design-forward websites. Amplify combines our best practices in accessibility, performance, and editorial flexibility into a single framework.
With Amplify, the EFIF team gets:
- A custom design system built to their brand
- Block-level control inside Gutenberg for layout and storytelling
- Automatic performance optimization, from image handling to caching
- Built-in accessibility patterns, so every block meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards
In short, Amplify gives EFI the freedom of a page builder with the performance and stability of a custom-coded site.
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“Our new website offers a unique mix of analysis, background information, and context. Kurt and his extended team did an excellent job helping us see new ways to present this information and delivering on a rapid timeline for implementation. We enjoy working with them.”
A Catalyst for New Development: The Team Members Plugin
One of the most meaningful outcomes of this project wasn’t just the site itself — it was what it inspired.
EFIF needed a simple but powerful way to showcase their leadership, staff, and collaborators across multiple contexts — from dedicated profile pages to sidebars and related content blocks. Existing tools were either too rigid or too bloated, so we built something better.
Enter the Team Members plugin for Amplify.
This plugin allows users to create and manage team profiles inside WordPress, complete with headshots, bios, roles, and flexible display options in Gutenberg. The EFIF site was the first to use it — and now it’s part of Amplify’s standard toolkit, benefiting every project that comes after.
Accessibility & Performance that Scales
Accessibility wasn’t a checkbox for this project — it was a foundation. From color contrast and keyboard navigation to semantic HTML and ARIA labeling, every component was built to meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.
This approach also future-proofs the site. Because every Gutenberg block in Amplify is accessibility-tested, EFI can confidently create new content knowing it inherits the same inclusive design principles as the rest of the site.
Energy data is heavy — sometimes literally. Reports and visualizations can include dense information, images, and downloads. We optimized every layer of the stack to make sure the site remains fast and efficient, no matter how much content it holds.
- Lazy loading ensures large visuals and charts don’t block rendering.
- Modern image formats (WebP) reduce file sizes dramatically.
- Code splitting ensures only necessary scripts load per page.
- Server-side rendering and caching provide near-instant load times.
The result? A site that consistently performs at the top of Google Lighthouse metrics, even with complex datasets and media-rich content.
Designed for the Long Game
EFI Foundation’s work is long-term, strategic, and deeply impactful. Their new site needed to reflect that — not only visually but functionally.
The site’s modular design ensures it can grow alongside new research initiatives and data projects. Its performance optimizations guarantee visitors get a fast, frictionless experience whether they’re on mobile or desktop. And its accessibility-first architecture ensures that everyone — policymakers, journalists, or the public — can access EFIF’s insights equally.
By combining a custom design approach with the technical power of Amplify, we helped EFIF build more than a website.
We built a platform for their future.
