ExpressionEngineMarketing & CommunicationsNon-Profit
Canadian Diabetes Association
Filed under ExpressionEngine, Marketing & Communications, Non-Profit
I worked as the Web Manager at the Canadian Diabetes Association for 2½ years, during which time I headed the redesign and re-architecture of diabetes.ca.
I managed a Web team of three that came up with a whole new design and information architecture for the site based on visitor statistics, user tests, and stakeholder interests. The visual design was upgraded to reflect the Association’s refreshed brand, and depicted a warmer, friendlier persona. We also updated the site’s antiquated code to modern, standards-compliant, accessible code, and added modern features such as News and Event subscription feeds.
In developing a new information architecture for diabetes.ca, we remedied a problem common to many corporate websites: the information architecture represented the internal structure of the organization rather than the appropriate arrangement of the content. Throughout the site, there were references to internal programs that were well known to staff, but that would not be clearly recognizable by their audience. The new architecture we developed involved a re-assessment of the site’s content, grouping information according to subject and where visitors would expect to find it, rather than according to the department that produced it.
We also migrated the site from a problematic 6-year-old content management system (CMS) to ExpressionEngine, and built the site such that the Association’s e-newsletter campaigns could be automatically populated by relevant content from the website.
