Design

Overview

The International College of Surgeons (ICS) was founded in 1935. It is a global organization dedicated to bringing together surgeons and surgical specialists of all nations, races, and creeds to promote surgical excellence for the benefit of all of mankind and to foster fellowship worldwide. ICS realized it needed to redesign its web site to increase membership and participation in its programs and more cost-effectively communicate to its members throughout the world.

Business Challenge

ICS was faced with declining membership and donations to its philanthropic programs. Meanwhile, its headquarters staff was spending additional time conducting informational mailings and completing other administrative tasks.

ICS’ original web site was not well designed or well organized. The navigation was inconsistent, making it difficult for visitors to locate information within the site. In addition, there were site features that weren’t working properly, frustrating ICS’ members. Finally, the content on the site was dated, providing little reason for even dedicated members to visit on a regular basis.

ICS sought the assistance of Design Access to build a professional, organized, content-driven web site.

Solution

Design Access met with ICS to determine a suitable style and design for the site as well as the appropriate content to include. ICS was concerned with keeping the site simple and intuitive, since many of its global members are not computer and Internet savvy.

Design Access designed and produced a professional, organized, and easy to navigate site for ICS and its members. The site has also helped the headquarters staff reduce costs associated with some of its tasks and processes including payment activity and informational mailings. Since the site redesign, the site has been kept updated with new content and as a result, site traffic and interest in ICS have grown tremendously.

Results

Design Access created a professional, yet simple and concise, site that fit within ICS’ budget. The site is now a one-stop location for any information members would need to know about the organization. It has generated renewed interest in ICS and has assisted the headquarters staff by reducing the amount of information that needs to be mailed to members. Since it was designed for the long term, new content is added to the site seamlessly due to its well-planned organizational structure.

What makes a well-designed site?

To judge a web site’s design, you must look at it on several levels. A well-designed site is attractive, user-centric, and functional. A well-designed site addresses all three levels of design: graphic, organizational, and technical.

Level 1 – Appearance

The first thing a viewer notices about a site is its graphic “look.” In the parade of sites that crowd the web, graphics are used to make the all-important first impression. In an instant, conclusions are drawn about the quality, professionalism, and spirit of a given organization. Graphics must catch the user’s interest, and project the attitude and character the organization wants to convey.

Level 2 – Organization

Sites can’t be judged on looks alone. The moment a person uses the site to access information, they have to deal with the next level of design: information architecture. The key to good information architecture is to think from the point of view of the user, the individual who uses the site as a tool.

Think of the best tools, like a hammer or a coffee cup… it simply does its job. A good tool avoids calling attention to itself, and it never makes you think about how to use it.

The same holds true for a well-designed site. It will work in a way that is logical to its user. It will include the features that the user prefers. The site might provide ways to browse, search, link, and summarize its information. Whatever a site’s features, the critical factor is that the site is designed from the user’s point of view.

Level 3 – Technical Issues

A well-designed site must also fit into the larger world of web browser versions, connection speeds, and search engines. This technical level of design handles issues like security, tracking, and database connectivity. Many take this level of design for granted, but even here, our design stands out – particularly in search engine placement, a complicated and often-overlooked task.

Design with the user in mind

A good design starts and ends with consideration of the target audience. In each case, we started by doing research. Among other things, we consider the target audience’s browsers, connection speeds, and plug-ins; their level of technical expertise; and the information they might seek from the site. From this initial research, we emerged with prioritized lists of technical and content requirements. We develop an organizational scheme that is intuitive for users, and scalable for the long term. We organize and refine the raw content with the user in mind. We create the graphics and technical underpinnings that have proven so attractive to users, and so useful for our clients.

Conclusion

In ICS’ case, due to the user-centric site redesign with an emphasis on search engine placement, traffic has grown considerably. This has enabled ICS to reduce the number of mailings it sends to members during the year, instead placing the information on the web site. This has reduced its overall communication costs and shortened communication cycles. In many ways, the new site has brought a global organization closer together.

Perhaps you have a site design that is not as usable as it could be. Have your users gotten lost, asked for tech support, or (worst of all) stopped visiting your site? We can help.

Design Access creates custom solutions that teach, inform, and inspire. We combine business expertise, design creativity, and technical mastery to develop innovative solutions to our customers’ business problems. We have partnered with over 60 Fortune 500 companies to help them achieve their learning and communication goals. Let us put our experience, talent, and energy to work for you. Give us a call.