CIC 2017 Website Redesign
The Challenge: Update an outdated, siloed website to better serve and represent a growing global company. As an added challenge, there was no marketing team to support me in this project.
My Process: Research staff pain points, analyze options, propose and deliver a complete solution with limited resources and oversight
Stakeholders: All CIC teams, COO, Founder + CEO
Collaborators: CIC teammate Amelia Wellers
Methods + Tools: Google Analytics, staff and client interviews, wireframing and UI sketching, Squarespace, Photoshop, Illustrator
Results: A new cic.com positioning the brand as a strong global company. I delivered better metrics, a fresh aesthetic, a simple brand style guide to be iterated on, and a gallery of images and icons to more easily build future web offerings. The site generated a 60% increase in the number of sessions per user in the first 6 months.
Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) did not invest in marketing efforts until 2016, when the company was beginning a rapid growth phase with no marketing team or CMO, little outbound presence, inconsistent brand positioning, and limited metrics. At the same time, staff were reporting self-consciousness and dissatisfaction with the brandās website and communications in our surveys. ā
āI hear regularly how awful it isā
āThe sales team steers prospets away from the websiteā
āDoes not truly represent the vibrant culture and diverse communities we hostā
āOut-dated for a leader in innovationā
āBurn it all down and make one websiteā
āMake it easier to participate in CICā
āWe need a digital marketing presence and strategyā
My colleague Amelia and I felt we could underline the need for marketing and design leadership by resolving this prominent issue. We began by comparing our available options: do nothing, tweak the existing site, move to a template based platform, or start a new custom build. We presented our goals and options to the COO, and he agreed that a templated solution was the best bet, given limited marketing resources.
Next, we interviewed operations, sales, launch, tech, and leadership teams about their needs, and analyzed existing Google Analytics data. During the redesign we were in constant conversations with these stakeholders. We also coordinated with CICās Global Software Engineering Team (GSET), which was beginning to build a client portal. It was great timing, allowing us to align goals and share additional research, like UX interviews with clients.
With these elements in mind, I designed a more streamlined sitemap. Up to this point, the website was being cloned for each CIC location. Each site had its own subdomain, creating a siloed structure with a lot of repeated information. It was frustrating to navigate and created major SEO issues. I merged the duplicated global elements and simplified the site structure to allow for ongoing growth. Next, I began wireframing to communicate our vision to stakeholders.
In early spring of 2017, I visited our software team in Warsaw to sync up on goals and further refine the sitemap. On the way home, I visited CIC HQ in Boston to confirm buy-in from the COO and kick off website construction. Amelia handled content curation while I built pages, organized photography, and created new iconography.
Near launch, we assigned webmasters from various teams to keep their sections up to date and trained them on the platform. When the Founder / CEO approved the final content, we coordinated with the tech team to switch over domains, create any needed redirects, and re-integrate analytics tools. We also set up a form to collect ongoing feedback, catch bugs, and respond to ongoing requests.
