American Red Cross: Web Audit & Audience Survey
The American Red Cross engaged Beaconfire to conduct a usability audit of redcross.org to help prioritize simple short-term improvements and provide a baseline for a long-term redesign initiative. The Red Cross team sought Beaconfire's assistance with a Web site assessment to review how effectively the Web site was serving current organizational goals, objectives and audiences given its breadth and depth of content, inconsistent navigation and diverse audience base. In addition to using Beaconfire's diagnostic tools, Beaconfire also analyzed historical traffic data to benchmark past usage trends, and surveyed site visitors for feedback on the current site. Beaconfire then presented the findings to key organizational stakeholders in an illustrated report.
The Challenge: As the Red Cross Web site grew over time, navigation and design inconsistencies made it increasingly difficult for visitors to interact with the site. Given the thousands of pages on the site (and the multitude of links to chapter and affiliated subsites), the Web team wanted to assess whether or not visitors were challenged by elements of the current site. With supporting information from the survey data and Beaconfire's analysis and audit, the Red Cross could then move forward and make informed changes.
The Solution:To validate the hypothesis that the visitor experience could be improved by making targeted modifications to the Web site, Beaconfire began the audit process by reviewing the homepage, four representative subsections, navigation schemes and two calls to action using its standard Web Audit Diagnostic. Quantitative scoring of the site's performance was conducted against 12 key diagnostic categories, including content, branding, architecture, metadata, typography, and error handing. The project also included a 25-question online survey to email subscribers and site visitors using SurveyMonkey and a 12-month WebTrends analysis to establish benchmarks from key metrics.
Initially, Beaconfire met with Red Cross staff to refine and confirm
organizational Internet goals and objectives, and to identify and prioritize
audiences and their desired interaction with online programs. This information
formed the foundation of the audit and informed the questions in the survey.
The assessment resulted in a detailed Web Audit presentation addressing navigation
options, page layout, use of content and the handling of subsites and cobranded
sites. Beaconfire identified "quick hit" improvements that the Red Cross could
execute immediately, as well as long-term recommendations for the future. The
audit's findings were formally presented to key Red Cross stakeholders, with
the intent that they would convey this information to department staff organization-wide
to help leverage support for Web site changes.