Bethany Little, Director of Interactive Services, Convio, Inc.

The Autism Society of America is the oldest, largest membership organization dedicated to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With 190,000 members and supporters, ASA has 182 chapters around the USA and 29 international affiliated parent organizations. The statistics on ASD in America today are startling: 1 in 150 children born today will have autism, with 1 in 90 boys, affecting more than one million Americans. Approximately 12.5-17 million family members are impacted by ASD, which is the fastest-growing developmental disability at a rate of 10-17%. Financially, ASD adds up to $90 billion in annual health care costs in the US, with 80% of costs in adult services. In 10 years, the annual cost will be $200-400 billion. The good news: the cost of treatment can be reduced by 2/3 by age 5 with early diagnosis and intervention.

Before 2007, ASA was consistently ranked first or second on Google searches for the keyword “autism”. Its fundraising initiatives were paper driven, and it had launched a toll-free help line (1-800-3Autism). Chapters were launching their own Web sites at a rapid pace, and ASA was the only national group dedicated to ASD.

In 2007, major changes took place: The Centers for Disease Control announced that there was a 1 in 150 prevalence of ASD. Major media coverage in January, February and April 2007 quadrupled Web traffic yet there was little conversion and ASA’s rankings on Google’s search engine had dropped to 3rd or 4th.

ASA’s Director of Communications Marguerite Kirst-Colston took notice and determined the organization’s battle plan would be “Search – Convert – and Conquer.”

"Where Do I Google at 2 a.m.?"

The Autism Society of America’s homepage presented several challenges: the name of the organization was not clear nor was the organization’s purpose and mission. The homepage did not indicate ASA’s priorities and, it did not give visitors clear guidance on where to go or what to do.

To optimize its search engine rankings, ASA needed to create an information portal that gave its constituents what they needed to live with autism today and a way for them to get involved to find solutions. Toward that goal, ASA set out to:

• Create a user experience that would support and promote conversion;
• Develop an infrastructure that is effective for search engine marketing and optimization;
• Build an online community for ASA’s changing constituency (more international, expanding to include groups like professionals, adults on the spectrum); and,
• Create tools to deepen constituent relationship management (CRM).

As part of the redesign process, ASA analyzed its audience by holding focus groups, conducting intensive stakeholder interviews and developing user personas. With this information, ASA created “functional use cases” to determine within these personas, (e.g., a caregiver of someone who has autism), what would they do once they got to the site? Or better yet, what would ASA want them to do? The functional use cases help focus the goals for each user persona to inform ASA’s site layout.

The discovery process also included an inventory of ASA’s content, a card sort usability exercise involving constituents (these individuals did not participate in the focus groups), an editorial gap analysis and the development of a content plan. A card sort test helps organizations observe their own constituents by organizing content around terminology that resonates with them personally. This exercise helps nonprofits break out of using jargon that may be unintentionally driven by departments or internal stakeholders.

Lastly, ASA engaged a usability assessment involving a heuristic (expert) evaluation of their current Web site and site path analysis (from Google Analytics & AWSTATS data).

The information gleaned from the discovery process enabled ASA to develop its new information architecture -- a new site structure and navigation schema that included plans for a more interactive design that supported overall organizational messaging and fundraising objectives. An annotated wireframe of the Web site was created first, and after an additional round of usability testing on the new layout, the visual design was created. At the time of this publication, ASA’s Web site implementation is in progress with a site prototype and is testing the site with constituents and undergoing quality assurance testing using defined browsers and platforms that fit with the specific audience personas defined in the usability analysis.

Lessons Learned

With a modest budget cobbled together from various departments and some outside underwriting, ASA undertook a thorough and successful process that served as the foundation for creating a strategic plan for its Web site. A veteran of supervising several Web site redesigns, Kirst-Colston recommends organizations create a Web site that is “flexible and adaptable for growth – even if you don’t know what’s ahead.” She also says that redesigning every 2 or 3 years should not be the approach; organizations should ensure they do their homework upfront with the appropriate user research to do it right -– don’t just jump to those “new designs” as your boss will push you to do! Resisting that urge and doing it right, will ensure long term scalability and solid results. Specifically, Kirst-Colston offers these four tips:

1. Find the right redesign partner!
2. Create an open, collaborative, and iterative process.
3. Position and sell the process inside your organization:
   1. Involve all the necessary stakeholders.
   2. Know when and why to include senior management.
   3. Articulate the value of having a long-term usability development plan.
4. Select the right tools to support your user experience.