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Brief
The National Pharmarcy Association (NPA) sought to transform their content heavy website into a dynamic and accessible portal delivering vital information to its members and users.
The NPA required a more consistent, user friendly, application and feature-rich member-facing website. Research indicated that users hadn’t found the existing site easy to navigate and they were unaware of many attributes available to them.
Strategy
The NPA’s goal in redesigning the website was to make it more user-centered and engaging; increase brand and market positioning; and promote the website as an effective medium for communication and commerce - as a channel that is interactive and puts the user in control of the content it wants to see.
The website was redesigned and built using EPiServer CMS by digital agency Netcel. EPiServer CMS and EPiServer Composer allow editors to easily change the layout and structure and functions of the website.
The NPA had been struggling to get content onto their website in a timely fashion.
“We had a bespoke system and I had to rely on our website developers to update the content and it was hugely frustrating. The contrast now is extraordinary, with time to delivery vastly improved as I’m now in control,” says Jennifer Law, E business Manager at the NPA. “I can be much more responsive and change things whenever I need to.”
Execution
With its users in mind. no longer are there public and member areas, instead it has been opened up to improve usability and navigation. “We realized that conversion rates were relatively low because non-members didn’t really have a good idea of all the resources available, “ says Jennifer. There is still content on the site that is only accessible by members where they are required to login, however the difference is now that all visitors see snippets of that content or resource.
Navigation is much clearer and more intuitive. Using color coding, users can easily identify the sorts of pages they are visiting, the different colors show if the pages represent, support or protect users or if they are general pages. This gives users a clearer understanding of the NPA’s delivery of services.
The website has many new and useful features including a striking What’s New link from the home page. Essentially it lets users know what new pages and content have been recently added to the site.
Search functionality has been improved so users can choose to search the whole website or just the resources. There’s also a ‘did you mean’ facility in case of misspelling. The Information Database is divided into four search categories, each of which can be searched independently: Product, Generic, Article and Company.
The new look NPA Education and Training section now has more in-depth information about each of its courses, with feedback questionnaires for students and members to complete. “I create these using xforms. It’s all so much easier and simpler, now that I can manage my own content, especially with on-page editing from EPiServer Composer,” says Jennifer. “I can also easily add surveys, which makes the site all the more engaging for users.”
From the NPA site, members can build their ‘own’ website, a five page mini-site to promote their own services on which they can create a series of quick links and add some of their own content. Personalisation features let users select a color scheme of their preference from a choice of three for their own home page.
New interactive features will be available as the second phase of the web development by Netcel is rolled out over the next twelve months. This is when user generated content will be added to the site. Members will be able to comment on articles and consultations via threads, blogs and forums.
There will be greater integration with the NPA’s Membership Relationship Management system and so users will find they get an enhanced and personalised online experience. Features, such as online payment for member subscriptions, allowing users to purchase membership in a more efficient manner will be launched too. The webshop will be further redesigned so that members can set authorisation limits for products as well as create credit limits. It will contain a wealth of new features such as order history, order status tracking and product bundling.
Results
“I’m delighted with the site, besides being delivered within our set time frame, it’s certainly streamlined the processes of editing and uploading content, and I’m positive we’ll make cost savings too,” says Jennifer. “We can already see users staying online for longer.”
The NPA will judge the success of the new site after six months by looking at a number of key performance indicators, including a 20% increase in daytime traffic, a 10% increase in the uptake of some services, a 25% increase in repeat visitors, and a reduction in bounce rates.
Tim Parfitt, Managing Director at Netcel, commented, ‘Netcel were the perfect EPiServer partner for NPA, as we possess considerable EPiServer CMS and CRM integration experience. The new site now provides the NPA with a great platform for future development, and the ability to promote the NPA brand whilst also offering a support community for its members.’
Phase 1 of development is now complete and Phase 2 will follow shortly. This will see the integration of the NPA’s information and member databases, allowing even better access to NPA’s services.
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