User-centered website for Pharmacy Association

EPiServer CMS and EPiServer Composer allow editors to easily change the layout and structure and functions of the website.

Increased brand and market positioning

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) required a more consistent, user friendly, application and feature-rich member-facing website. Research indicated that users hadn't found the existing site easy to navigate and they were unaware of certain attributes available to them.

The NPA's goal in redesigning was to make it more user-centered and engaging; increase brand and market positioning; and promote the website as an effective medium for communication and commerce - as a channel that is interactive and puts the user in control of the content it wants to see.

The NPA had been struggling to get content onto their website in a timely fashion. " We had a bespoke system and I had to rely on our website developers to update the content and it was hugely frustrating. The contrast is extraordinary, with time to delivery vastly improved as I'm now in control," says Jennifer Law, E business Manager at the NPA. "I can be much more responsive and change things whenever I need to."

Improved usability and navigation

The website was redesigned and built by digital agency Netcel, with its users in mind. No longer are there public and member areas, instead it has been opened up to improve usability and navigation. "We realized that conversion rates were relatively low because non-members didn't really have a good idea of all the resources available, " says Jennifer. There is still content on the site that is only accessible by members where they are required to login, however the difference is now that all visitors see snippets of that content or resource.

Navigation is much clearer and more intuitive. Using color coding, users can easily identify the sorts of pages they are visiting, the different colors show if the pages represent, support or protect users or if they are general pages. This gives users a clearer understanding of the NPA's delivery of services.

More features and functionality

The website has many new and useful features including a striking What's New link from the home page. Essentially it lets users know what new pages and content have been recently added to the site.

Search functionality has been improved so users can choose to search the whole website or just the resources. There's also a 'did you mean' facility in case of misspelling. The Information Database is divided into four search categories, each of which can be searched independently: Product, Generic, Article and Company.

The new look NPA Education and Training section now has more in-depth information about each of its courses, with feedback questionnaires for students and members to complete. "I create these using xforms. It's all so much easier and simpler, now that I can manage my own content, especially with on-page editing from EPiServer Composer," says Jennifer. "I can also easily add surveys, which makes the site all the more engaging for users."

Personalized and interactive content

From the NPA site, members can build their 'own' website, a five page mini-site to promote their own services on which they can create a series of quick links and add some of their own content. Personalization features let users select a color scheme of their preference from a choice of three for their own home page.

New interactive features will be available as the second phase of the web development by Netcel is rolled out over the next twelve months. This is when user generated content will be added to the site. Members will be able to comment on articles and consultations via threads, blogs and forums.

There will be greater integration with the NPA's Membership Relationship Management system and so users will find they get an enhanced and personalized online experience. Features, such as online payment for member subscriptions, allowing users to purchase membership in a more efficient manner will be launched too. The webshop will be further redesigned so that members can set authorization limits for products as well as create credit limits. It will contain a wealth of new features such as order history, order status tracking and product bundling.

"I'm delighted with the site, besides being delivered within our set time frame, it's certainly streamlined the processes of editing and uploading content, and I'm positive we'll make cost savings too," says Jennifer. "We can already see users staying online for longer."