This project began with an extensive strategic planning phase, which included stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, persona development, analytics analysis and keyword research, user journey mapping and site feature definition. These activities established the foundational goals for the project moving forward, including combining content from multiple DFW properties to form one flagship industry site, improving usability of the site, while also increasing awareness of the value of the DFW organization and its content and improving the administrative process to gain efficiency and make it easier to manage.
The structure and navigation of the site were also critical, as it caterers to many sub-audiences within the industry and content from several existing digital properties was getting combined. Through an extensive content mapping exercise, we were able to establish an intuitive site structure and eliminate duplicate and unnecessary content, while also defining new content, such as the Our Farms section, which is relevant to DFW’s audience, but did not exist on the old site.
In addition to making the site more user-friendly, the design needed to be updated to match the recent rebranding and visual brand overhaul DFW had recently done. The new site uses a highly visual format to tell DFW’s brand story and provide the industry with easily digestible information on key initiatives, including check off dollars, youth and school programs, June Dairy month and dairy promotions.
The site was built using the Kentico 12 CMS and is built using a widget approach, which makes it easy to create new content pages using a combination of the existing visual formats. The site also features an extensive password-protected section of the site. Users can register for an account and the content presented to them on his/her dashboard is tailored, based on each user’s specific role. The dashboard features latest news and announcements, upcoming events, quick links to important resources, downloadable promo kits and many other resources specific to each audience.
