The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the largest professional society in the world with over 159,000 members. ACS publishes over 30 peer review journals, a news magazine and several textbooks on education and chemistry, in addition to the content the society publishes on its Web site. Their overall Web presence existed in the form of multiple sites and ACS was concerned that major information could not be found easily and related topics were often widely dispersed across many sites. To address one this, ACS embarked on a significant restructuring of the content.

ACS contracted e.magination to evaluate the information requirements of its constituents and redesign the information architecture for their new Web presence.

Information Architecture

User Research

Usability Testing

Content Strategy & Migration

Solution:

A team of experienced information architects, along with a human computer interaction specialist, tested over 200 ACS constituents. In a collaborative effort, over 10 ACS business divisions and over 60 internal stakeholders were interviewed. Based on the findings, a new strategy and direction for the information design was established.

• Collaborative design approach
• New strategy and direction of the information design
• Ethnographic research to develop best design for users and society

Results:

Our collaborative process ensured that the ACS team could articulate the requirements to senior management, giving them a voice in shaping the society’s direction on the Web and solidifying the team‘s understanding of their constituents’ needs and the importance of continuing to focus on those needs in the future.

At the close of the effort, ACS endorsed e.magination’s findings and wished to accelerate follow-on activities that resulted from the current project.

• Clean, organized web presence optimized for constituents
• Web presence became key component of ACS’ strategic plan