The Outcome
- 1,900% increase in visitors over a three year period
- 3,800 new newsletter subscribers
- Meets current international standards for accessibility (Section 508 of ADA, W3CAG)
- Simple, effective user registration system
- Easy to use e-mail newsletter publishing system
The CIMdata website is built to meet current web standards. This results in faster loading pages, greater accessibility for vision impaired visitors, and easier maintenance resulting in lower costs to the company.
The new user registration system has made it easier for users to reach the content they want and for CIMdata to collect the information they want from visitors.
The Challenge
Website Redesign
We started with a site with 2,000+ pages and little order imposed on them. The site had built up over a number of years and lacked organization or management of content by the various people who worked on it. The site had almost a decade worth of material, much of it outdated, and with little logical structure. Images, pdf files and web pages were stored with little regard for organization. Visually, the site was a patchwork and the code was ineffiecient and ineffective, causing serious accessibility problems.
The Solution
Information Architecture
We started with a complete content inventory, including the text content, images, PDF files, and other items that made up the site content and designs. Old content was removed or updated, and places were found where new content was required.
We located many areas where there was insufficient information for users to make decisions about doing business with CIMdata. The previous site contained little information on CIMdata's consulting services and it was difficult to locate. We worked with the content providers to flesh out this section in the new site and added links to various CIMdata consulting packages throughout the site.
Features were added to assist users in navigating the site and finding the information they need:
- The site search feature was moved from a mostly hidden and unused page to the top right corner of every page
- The global site navigation is found on the left side of each page
- PDF files are clearly marked with an icon and the file size to avoid large accidental downloads
- Standardized locations of page labels and secondary navigation keep users oriented within the site
After the content inventory, we proceeded to create a number of user profiles based on information collected about CIMdata's customer base. Working with the CIMdata consultants, we specified the target audience for the site and looked at how we could better support the users' wants and needs when they visited the web site. These personas were used during later design phases in examining user needs.
Visual Design
The next stage was to define the new look of the CIMdata site. Given few initial guidelines we quickly developed a number of possible variations before developing the general look and feel seen in the screen shot below. The initial design was rough, but was polished throughout the rest of the design process. One of the key changes was the removal of frames from the site. The new design focuses on ease of navigation and clear presentaiton of content on each page.
New Homepage
Old Homepage
Functionality / Usability
A significant improvement in the site is the new user registration system. In the old system users filled out extensive forms each time they wanted to download a publication or make a purchase on the site. The new registration system removes the redundant forms and allows users to log in and get to the content faster. Using a PHP and MySQL backend we created a simple Flash interface that allows users to log in, logout, delete accounts, retrieve passwords, and find links to information for registered users and a registration form in one location on every page.
CIMdata also wanted to launch an e-mail newsletter at the same time as the site. We devised a system using Macromedia Contribute and PHP to send out daily and weekly HTML e-mails. Content providers in the company can now create and publish the newsletters with minimal training.
Contact us for more information on working with Infinite Web Design.