The appointment of a new CEO in early 2009 prompted us to review the development strategy for our corporate website, www.reedelsevier.com.

Having partnered with salterbaxter on a major project to migrate to a new SharePoint environment in 2007/8, we were keen not to have to go back to the drawing board for a wholesale rethink of the site this time around. So a strategy of incremental, focused and effective enhancements, over time, to grow our online presence and constantly engage our audiences held a great deal of appeal.

Original Reed Elsevier Corporate Website home page

Two benefits of this approach became immediately apparent. It tied in with our available budget, and meant that we could deliver tangible improvements to the site within the inevitably tight timescales that would be required. Taking one element of the site in isolation, we could focus on how to make it work harder for our audiences, and turn it around as part of a short, sharp, impactful mini-project.

But where to start? We undertook a review of the site including information architecture, template design, page styles, content appropriateness and homepage design, whilst ensuring that our core objective was always at the forefront of our thinking: to showcase the value of our products, through innovation and our customers.

We recognised that achieving this objective could come via a number of options: improvements to the site SEO, refreshing elements of the design, improving the overall IA, introducing social and rich media.

By breaking down these options into their component parts, we could take a step back from the whole and better prioritise what we needed to do first. We were able to pinpoint what needed fixing, allowing us to implement key changes to the site. Once the fixes were made, we could then focus our efforts on analysing feedback post implementation, and tweaking and improving as necessary.

There were challenges to working this way, mostly in adapting to the shorter development timescales and having to take quicker decisions to overcome unforeseen issues.

We opted to refresh the existing look and feel of the homepage and improve some of the tired old site templates. Within three months we had successfully produced a truly refreshed site that was almost unrecognisable from the old design, without breaking the bank.

New Reed Elsevier Home Page design

We are now looking at the next improvement phase – integrating social media into the site – with a similar turnaround time, and with the expectation of similar success.

Check out the new corporate website redesign at www.reedelsevier.com or follow them on twitter @ReedElsevierHQ

Sometimes we don’t have time to do a full redesign that includes improving the information architecture and underlying technology.

Looking at the visual design, the hierarchy of elements on the page, connecting tasks and information will greatly improve your online experience.

Key insight

• Design a visual hierarchy and structure that can be applied across templates
• Connect related tasks and features so they are easy to find
• Ensure messaging is simple yet bold
• Make it easy for a user to scan the page but breaking it up into smaller elements

Read more about it here, in our Reed Elsevier case study.

New Reed Elsevier Home Page design

Next Page > Case Study: A client perspective: Reed Elsevier

You created this great website but no-one is using it.

Organisations often invest time and effort to build a channel or microsite but it is almost impossible to find once the news link has gone from the home page. Users won’t visit your site if they don’t know it exists. Therefore, you need a strategy to ensure findability and it needs to be consistent and visible.

As an example, let’s try and find the Barclays Annual Report Centre.

Barclays Annual Reporting Centre

This site is actually quite good. But unless you know it exists it is impossible to find.

Via the corporate website

http://group.barclays.com/Home – there is no mention.

Visit the Investor Centre

http://group.barclays.com/Investor-Relations – there is no mention

Visit latest Annual Reports page

http://group.barclays.com/Investor-Relations/Shareholder-information/Annual-Reports – there is no mention

Visit 2009 Annual Report

http://www.barclaysannualreports.com/ar2009/

And there in the menu is a link to Barclays Annual Reporting Centre
- There it is

If you use the corporate website search – type Barclays Annual Report Centre – no results but you do get 2007 as the top listing (not 2009?).

Go to Google and type in Barclays Annual Report Centre. Yes, it can be found, but this assumes you know what you’re looking for, which is not intuitive.

Key insight

• Understand the way people find your site
• Understand key terms people search for
• Ensure it works if you search in Google
• Ensure it can be found using the website global search
• Ensure the relevant links are on key landing pages, so you can be found
• Ensure appropriate signposting on the corporate site in relevant areas/pages
• Ensure it works from your corporate website in a few clicks

Next Page > Option 4: Reskin can improve your user experience

Online communications can get fragmented pretty quickly. Being in many places is important. This may include Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, Forums, Facebook, blogs etc. That is on top of all the micro-sites that you create and your users have to find and navigate.

So make it easy for users to understand where you are on the web and aggregate all your channels into one place for easy access.

Coca-Cola Company Home Page

The Coca-Cola Company links key channels and social conversations on the home page.

IHG PLC also provide links to key channels via their corporate home page.

IHG Corporate Website home page

Key insight

• Audit all the online communications you have
• Can they all be found easily from your primary site?
• Create hubs, a page or areas on the page where all your communications can be profiled and found

Next Page > Option 3: Make sure work for you

1. Design a better home page

A great home page provides multiple entry points into content without providing too much information. It must explain your business quickly and provide links to relevant content and links based on user tasks and needs.

If it doesn’t, it isn’t working hard enough.

So if it does one thing only, it is not enough. By only allowing a user to do one thing, you limit their options and it ignores that each user has a different set of requirements. An investor looking for the latest report is different to a  PR agent looking for a press release. Ensuring all relevant content is visible is key.

The Antofagasta home page is an example of a one-click wonder. Although all the content is within the navigation, there is no option to highlight key information relevant to the users. The only link is news and is that enough to draw your users into the site?

Antofogasta Home Page

On the flip side, beware of providing too much information. Using the Cobham home page as an example, overwhelming a user with too much content or links with no hierarchy will only confuse a user. They won’t know where to click.

Cobham Home Page

Put yourself in the user’s shoes and present information that matters to them. Think about why someone visits your website. They may be interested in the latest Annual results, they want to read the latest strategic direction. They may want to know your position on sustainability?

Kingfisher have created a great home page. The user is instantly given a strong sense of the organisation. There is a clear positioning statement and content targeted to key users interested in product, innovations, reports, and quick links and key features. They have maximized the page design and answered
the key questions of their audience.

Kingfisher Home Page

Key insight

• Ensuring all relevant content is visible is key
• Think about what your users need to see and structure accordingly
• Provide links to multiple sources of content
• Bring engaging content to the surface like videos and photo galleries
• Use headings/caption smartly to focus on user goals and needs

Next Page > Option 2: Do more than communicate. Also aggregate

Management requirements, imposed deadlines and budget constraints sometimes mean you need to improve your digital communications quickly and efficiently, without looking at every area that needs improvement.

The beauty and strength of digital media is that it doesn’t have to be perfect when you launch. As long as you are committed to evolving it over time, responding to user needs, developing new content and features and always building on a strong foundation. This ensures you see results faster, which contributes to fulfilling your strategy.

This Directions Supplement looks at simple and effective projects to improve and enhance your existing online communications, now.

What we are proposing is neither rocket science nor a radical new approach to online communications. However, sometimes working in the online industry it is easy to forget the basics. We all get excited about the latest and greatest technology. Who doesn’t?

In corporate communications it’s sometimes hard to decipher which channels and technologies are relevant. Making sense of the speed with which digital moves combined with effectively communicating what your strategy is, financial performance, annual report/review, sustainability programme or employee engagement programme can be challenging.

Where do we start? What is the impact on your online communications strategy and how can you create improvements without breaking the bank? How do we stop technology becoming a barrier to making change happen? Which areas should you be investing in?

It’s easy to just throw your hands up and, go it’s all just too hard, let’s just start again.

This supplement is about showing how you can break your strategy into bite-sized and manageable projects. These projects you can do right now without having to start from scratch. This proven approach will see results quickly and grow your presence more effectively.

Next Page > Option 1: Design a smarter home page

Time to launch a bee-friendly label

Companies including Haagen-Dazs and The Co-op are trying to save bees, but these campaigns need to be coordinated to make a real difference. Read more here… http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/blog/time-to-launch-bee-friendly-labelling-scheme