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Improving design is a new series that AssociaDirect will be posting on a regular basis. The goal of the series is to explain to associations how design impacts the usefulness and success of their online presence. This series is our way of showing you how we would approach the redesign of a site and improve its overall effectiveness. Sites are selected by our staff based on their ability to demonstrate a particular skill or improvement. We have not been contracted by the organizations that we feature; however we do hope that they take our perspective into consideration.
For our first example, we have chosen to feature the American Medical Association’s website. For the most part, the AMA’s site appears to be functional and interactive, however a number of technical & design issues immediately stuck out to us.
AMA’s Current Website
- The site poorly utilizes screen real-estate. A quick search of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine shows that the site was originally launched in late 2004. At that time monitor resolutions were much smaller on average necessitating this narrow layout. Today’s modern displays are much higher resolution, making the site appear small and crowded.
- The site was not developed for cross browser compatibility. The site was originally launched during a period when browsers weren’t all on the same set of standards. Because of this, when viewing the AMA’s website in a modern browser like Firefox or Safari the pages appear broken (pictured).
- Inconsistent treatment of links and news. The various formatting issues presented within the links and new section make them appear cluttered and as a result users will have a hard time finding what they need. It is more likely that the links will be avoided all together.
AssociaDirect’s Redesigned Layout
- The site layout has been adjusted to fit the average resolution of today’s monitors to allow for additional whitespace and better visual hierarchy.
- The navigation has been separated into a primary and secondary area. This allows for more frequently used information to be more accessible, and make navigation easier as a whole.
- A featured news area has been proposed to allow key issues to be brought to attention by visitors and increase their exposure.
- A large graphic has been added to showcase the DoctorFinder feature. This will allow non-members visiting the site to quickly find the feature and not get lost in the information intended for members.
- The news section has been redesigned to accommodate the length of titles, and an RSS feed feature has been proposed to allow members to subscribe to receive updates.
We feel that our redesign would improve both the usability and usefulness of the site, offering incentives to revisit, and subscribe to the site.
Hopefully this article has given you a glimpse into our process and helps explain the importance of design. It is important to note, that we have not had any conversations with the AMA about this redesign, and the design we have posted is a self initiated exercise. In order to truly apply an effective design solution, conversation and collaboration must take place between the client and design team. While there is the possibility that this solution could be successful for the organization, it is not intended to devalue their current site.