Educating and Helping Architects

The Copper Development Association web site serves a diverse audience, many with very specialized needs and goals, including architects and designers who work with copper materials. Were they getting what they needed and did the content make their jobs easier?

The Challenges

Making audience-specific content discoverable and easier to find was the initial challenge. We also needed to better understand what was it that architects were likely to be looking for when they visited the site. Finally, we wanted to understand what their experience was like as they navigated through the site in search of their goals.

Our Process

We conducted a usability test, asking architects how they arrived at the site, what kinds of information they were looking for, and determining how easy (or hard) it was for them to find useful information in the sections devoted to architects.

Quick Fixes

We discovered a number of UX problems that needed to be fixed and addressed, most very quickly:

• meta-data edits (leading to increased search engine traffic)
• navigational issues (more consistent navigation, clearer labels)
• site performance (load times)

Iterative Fixes Over Time

Others were more long-term issues, which we addressed over time. These included:

• useful feature ideas (downloadable CAD files)
• improved site search
• additional images
• hierarchical and grouped organization of content

Read a brief executive summary of our key findings (PDF).