Case Studies

Overall, APTA’s website, www.apta.org, was not meeting the internal or external needs of the organization.  APTA wanted to implement the following benefits to their website:

• Provide User-Friendly Navigation and Search.  APTA’s website provided its members and visitors with a copious amount of useful information and resources; however, users had a difficult time finding the specific content they needed on APTA’s website due to poorly designed navigation and a weak internal search engine.                                                                                                                
• Drive Consistency and Brand Unification. APTA needed to create streamlined, consistent microsites for their three major conferences in order to simplify the user experience while also increasing the ways that they market these products. Each microsite had its own look and feel that did not correspond into APTA’s overall digital ecosystem and branded theme.
• Manage Content Efficiently.   APTA found their existing content management system (CMS) inflexible in creating templates and other content pages for the end user. APTA also lacked a reliable and efficient analytics system that could allow staff to track page popularity, referrals, homepage out-clicks, and other critical data.

• Ironworks’ Research and Measurement team stepped in to determine what site features APTA members desired. After researching the data, Ironworks provided several strategies to improve the user’s ability to find and discover content.  An audience segmentation option was implemented giving groups with unique needs access to content of most interest to them.
• Ektron CMS 400 was selected as APTA’s new content management system. Ektron provides a content editor that lets contributors create or change pages easily using a variety of templates, with workflow as needed for reviews and approvals.  They are now able to leverage a wide variety of social media and calendar tools included with Ektron.
• Ironworks provided APTA a set of 4 microsite designs that reflect the APTA brand to support its subsidiary organizations, publications, and annual conferences. APTA now has the ability to modify its microsites more easily and yet they follow consistent brand standards.
• The search product Coveo was integrated into Ektron to provide faceted results. This function lets users filter their search within categories to progressively zero in on the resources that best meet their needs.

Since the launch of the new www.apta.org, both members and APTA employees are experiencing improvements and rewards to the site.

• Meeting Member Needs. With improved navigation and search as well as focused areas for specific audiences (including physical therapist assistants, students, educators, and new professionals), users are now able to find content more easily. Social media functionality allows users to share site content through email and social media sites.  Members are able to comment on articles and exchange ideas with their colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
• Meeting Staff Needs. After implementing Ektron CMS 400, APTA content contributors can better manage their own web content while maintaining a consistent user experience.  And now, content contributors can go a step further by managing both internal promotions and external advertising campaigns across multiple pages. With built-in and improved web analytics, APTA also has the data to understand what areas of their site are most successful and where additional enhancements may be needed.