With a large number of stakeholders and an internal brand team, I knew we’d need to get everyone on the same page from the beginning of the project. By using periodic milestone check-ins during the discovery process we avoided costly changes late in the project.
I prepared a visual inventory that allowed stakeholders to respond to existing sample websites. By calling attention to features that made each example unique I was able to guide the conversations towards productive design decisions.
As the former site had grown haphazardly over nearly 10 years, a primary goal of the site redesign was to update the information architecture. In concert with a small team, I helped evaluate each article on the site, removing those that were out of date, poorly written or received low traffic. Each article slated for removal was checked against search engine performance to ensure we didn't introduce any SEO issues after pruning extraneous pages.
With hundreds of articles designated as critical to the site, I tackled redefining the information architecture using a variety of tactics including card sorts, stakeholder interviews, architecture tree tests and my own UX experience.
Despite being a stand alone website, Help for Alzheimer’s Families is part of the Home Instead Senior Care brand. Style tiles allowed me to explore different iterations of branding until all stakeholders were satisfied the site would appear independent, but retain a connection to the parent brand.
The success of the revitalized Help for Alzheimer's Families site helped support the Home Instead parent brand as thought leaders in caregiver outreach. With increased traffic, a more flexible content organization structure and improved metrics the site prompted the client to reevaluate their other existing web properties and slate major overhauls for their larger, more complex websites.
