Case Studies – Web Site Makeovers
By Raha Naddaf, Staff Writer
Innovation
Web Site, Farm Credit Canada
As Canada’s leader in agricultural financing, Farm
Credit Canada (FCC) helps Canadian farmers and agribusiness
operators grow, diversify and prosper. In 2001-02 President
and CEO John Ryan announced that the organization would focus
on knowledge management, leadership and innovation as business
priorities that would help to maintain and improve FCC’s
leading marketplace position. The FCC created an innovation
web site that was radically different than the rest of their
corporate intranet to draw attention to and promote innovation
within FCC. Working with Phoenix Group, a full-service agency,
FCC developed an icon that was inspired by the FCC logo, providing
continuity and consistency. Like FCC’s logo, the innovation
icon features a smooth, flowing style on the 'i.' The remaining
letters are done in a somewhat fun and funky font that distinguishes
innovation from a more ‘corporate’ mindset.
FCC felt it was critical that the innovation web site be engaging,
different and delightful. The innovation icon went a long
way toward achieving that. On the home page, FCC combined
the icon with a visual of a hand, using various links to take
employees through the information-rich site. Throughout the
site, they used vibrant photography of staff in unusual, animated
poses, sometimes showing just the feet or upper body of individuals,
sometimes turning them upside down, anything that added to
the whimsical look and feel and promoted personality and vibrancy.
UNOS
Corporate Web Site, United Network for Organ Sharing
To address the nation's critical organ donation shortage
and improve the organ matching and placement process, the
U.S. Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act in
1984. The act established the OPTN to maintain a national
registry for organ matching. The act also called for the network
to be operated by a private, non-profit organization under
federal contract. UNOS wanted to promote organ and tissue
donation, advocate knowledge sharing on topics related to
donation and transplantation, and explain how the UNOS mission
supports these goals. UNOS redesigned their site to be a communication
vehicle between themselves and the transplant community. The
launch of UNetSM, an Internet-based system internally designed
to administer the waiting list, donor matching and the collection
of scientific transplant data, provided the basis of the redesign
of the corporate web site.
This new medical data system drove content creation and prompted
redesign of the site architecture, layout and design. The
planning was based on analysis of past tracking reporting
results, including the top pages visited, member surveys,
and user feedback in the form of common web master questions
from patients, members and the media since the site's original
release in 1997. The content and design overhaul also included
the automation of many forms and documents, which replaced
routine transactions that were handled by UNOS staff. The
team ensured that the visual design supported the content
and presented a professional identity to reinforce corporate
branding. The site’s design is part of a visual identity
system for the entire company and ties into the professional
print publications created by all departments at UNOS. The
team also dramatically improved site usability through redesigned
navigation and content hierarchy, standardizing forms and
other improvements.
Rotman
Web Site: www.rotman.utoronto.ca, Joseph L. Rotman School
of Management
The Rotman School of Management has set out to become one
of the world’s top 20 business schools by 2005, and
one of the top 10 business schools by 2008. To achieve this,
the school needed to build a critical mass of intellectual
capital and become a provider of research and program content.
Their web site is a key tool in communicating their message
of quality and distinction in the highly competitive global
business school arena.
Their homepage attempts to tell their story on a variety
of levels. The ‘Why Choose Rotman?’ button, featured
prominently on the homepage, takes visitors to a description
of their efforts to reinvent business education. Since Rotman's
degree programs are the basis for the school’s existence,
the ‘Degree Programs’ button appears first on
the navigation bar, with a pop-up menu that takes users directly
to the program of their choice. Some key ‘school personality
icons’ at the left of the screen, including a ‘Diary
of a First Year Student’ and an ‘Applicant Profile,’
along with the latest ranking news from the top three rankings
in the world (The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek
and the Financial Times) allow for quick access.
New
Hope for Parkinson’s, Medtronic
New Hope for Parkinson’s is an integrated marketing
program designed to attract Parkinson’s patients to
Medtronic’s web site for Parkinson’s-related information
with a unique focus on as well as educational materials for
Activa Therapy. There are many Parkinson’s-related organizations
with web sites offering information on the disease. To draw
people to their site, the team knew they would have to differentiate
themselves in some way. Their approach was to focus on creating
content that was difficult to find in other places and achieve
a level of excellence based on input from subject matter experts.
The result is a library of information that centers on living
well with Parkinson’s disease and includes a balance
of holistic approaches, clinical information, the latest scientific
findings, issues related to health and well-being, and information
on Activa Therapy. All information and services are free of
charge. They generated traffic to the site using direct mail,
Parkinson’s keyword purchases, banner ads, e-mail from
patient advocacy groups, opt-in brochures and literature distributed
at special events and through doctors’ offices, and
links to their site from other Parkinson’s sites. In
addition to providing Parkinson’s patients with information
that is unlike what is found through other organizations,
the program also is helping to meet company sales goals.
The collection of all case studies from the 2004 Gold
Quill Awards program, titled, "Best Practices in Communication
Planning and Implementation, Volume 19," is scheduled
for release in October. The new softcover book will feature
more than 100 case studies of what's working in communication
right now. Online preordering will be available soon at www.iabc.com/knowledge.
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