Information Architecture for the Website Redesign for an Animal Association
Client: American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA)
PROJECT SUMMARY
To create a new information architecture and website design to promote AAHA's accreditation service and clear confusion between accreditation and membership.
About The Client
AAHA improves the human-animal bond by helping veterinary practitioners provide optimal care.
My Role
Experience designer on a team that included a project lead, a project manager, a visual designer, and a business analyst.
UX Methods
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Survey
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Cross-Divisional Workshop
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Card Sort & Sitemap
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Wireframes
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we show that AAHA is a supportive partner as opposed to cold, calculating accreditors and showcase the value of being AAHA-accredited so animal hospitals will begin the accreditation process and pet owners will learn the significance of accreditation.
88% of vet clinics not accredited so there is a real opportunity here!
Though animal hospitals are not required to be AAHA-accredited, an AAHA accreditation showcases the standard of excellence.
Pet owners are often not aware if an animal hospital is accredited.
USERS & AUDIENCES
The primary audiences for the website are companion animal hospitals and practitioners who strive to create a warm work environment and support their patients (pet owners + pet).
Animal Hospitals
(as a team)
Practitioners
at Animal Hospitals
Pet Owners
(secondary audience)
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Veterinarians
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Hospital Office Managers
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Technicians
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Other Vet Professionals
Meet with Stakeholders
Align project objectives to AAHA’s 3 Strategic Goals, which focused more on animal practitioners vs pet owners in first iteration of the website redesign.
Facilitate a Cross-Divisional Staff Workshop
Include participants from AAHA leadership staff and departments, ranging from CEO, marketers, fundraiser, education planning, and meeting planning.
Conduct a Member Survey
The AAHA Guidelines and educational resources are highly valued content.
I conducted these research activities to learn how to best streamline the information architecture and content to meet expectations of website visitors
Run a Card Sort Activity with Members
"Resources" content was broken into smaller categories based on tasks such as running your practice, marketing your practice, and career tools.
Build Information Architecture
Improve navigational structure to clearly distinguish accreditation and membership.
Design
Wireframes
Plan the content hierarchy for the homepage to promote AAHA's key services and products.
The Process
STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
The new website must focus on animal hospital practitioners and clearly communicate the difference between accreditation and membership.
According to stakeholder interviews with 18 AAHA staff members:
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Promoting accreditation, especially to animal hospitals, will have a positive impact on AAHA’s financial bottom line
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AAHA wants to be seen as an advocate for animal hospitals, especially since mental health is a risk in their field
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The primary audiences for the new are animal hospital practitioners, while secondary audiences are pet owners
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AAHA's 3 strategic goals ​must be addressed throughout the project
1
Promote the Value of Accreditation
and increase public awareness of accredited hospitals
2
Healthy Workplace Culture Initiative
helps veterinary teams create work environments that foster overall well-being
Re-image the Accreditation Process
3
to provide a seamless, virtual evaluation protocol as part of the process.
This frees up time for hospital practitioners to focus on practicing medicine.
AAHA’s 3 Strategic Goals drove my design decisions through the project lifecycle
The Process
CROSS-DIVISIONAL
WORKSHOP
Participants/teams included a mix of leadership roles
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design
-
editing
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fundraising
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meetings
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publishing
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technology
We facilitated a cross-divisional workshop with the AAHA staff, which consist of 3 team exercises that unveil potential polarizing opinions among team members and help bridge the gaps between departments about the website strategy.
During this workshop, staff members from various departments were separated into 3 teams and led through 3 different exercises.
Exercise 1:
Content organization
(card sort)
Exercise 2:
Content priority
Exercise 3:
Content by audience segment
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM CROSS-DIVISIONAL WORKSHOP
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Only 1 of the 3 teams placed Accreditation as a primary navigation item during the content organization (card sort) exercise. However, promoting the value of accreditation is a strategic goal of the organization so we needed to address that with the staff.
​ -
All 3 teams agreed that Accreditation Awareness, AAHA Advantage, and Hospital Locator are high priority content. This aligns with their strategic goals of promoting accreditation, which is a revenue generator for the organization.
​
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The most relevant content items for Practice Managers are believed to be AAHA Advantage, AAHA Market Connect, Chart of Accounts, and Evaluation Tool.
Now that we heard from the AAHA organization, it was time to talk to their customers.
The Process
SURVEY
AAHA Guidelines and Continuing Education opportunities are highly-valued content and must be prioritized in the new website.
2,011
Survey respondents completed the survey
94%
Survey respondents
work in an animal hospital
When asked:
What are the 3 most common reasons you visit aaha.org?
​
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66% are looking for AAHA Guidelines
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56% are finding an education/training
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46% are finding a resource or work tool
Bolstering placement of AAHA Guidelines and Education is imperative in the new website. Now let's see where they expect to find these content items.
The Process
CARD SORT
Rather than list Accreditation under Membership, combine them together in the primary navigation as Accreditation and Membership.
46
card sort participants
39
cards
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Card sort participants placed similar content items in both categories and labeled them Accreditation and Membership.
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Aligns with strategic goal to promote the value of accreditation.
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The content is similar and the website visitor can learn how Membership feeds into the Accreditation funnel. My goal is to get website visitors into the accreditation funnel.
Above: Dropdown menu for Accreditation and Membership section on new website
Ultimately, the 3 strategic goals, and the findings from the cross-divisional workshop, the survey, and the card sort activity and informed the sitemap structure.
The Process
SITEMAP & INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
A new information architecture was created to inform animal hospital practitioners about accreditation and provide resources for them to run their hospitals more efficiently.
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AAHA Guidelines is displayed as a primary navigation item, since these were ranked as high priority content in the member survey. These were formerly listed as sub-navigation item under Resources.
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Accreditation and Membership is now intentionally listed together as the first primary navigation item, so it will stand out when people scan the page. My goal is to get website visitors into the accreditation funnel.
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Sub-navigation items for Resources that are based on tasks, such as running your practice, marketing your practice, and information to share with pet owners.
Card sort participants created categories for resources that influenced the sub-navigation for this section. For instance, categories such as “marketing”, “publicity”, “management resources” were created for the card for Publicity Toolbox.
Above: New navigation dropdown menu for Resources section
The Process
WIREFRAMING
Sketching the wireframes for Home and AAHA Guidelines pages allowed me to focus on highest priority content to communicate.
I created 5 wireframes
Homepage
AAHA Guidelines Overview
AAHA Guidelines Detail
Interior
Conference microsite
Homepage Wireframe: Visitors are enticed to scroll the page through heartfelt storytelling and warm imagery
5-7 headlines were used to create a story that aligned with AAHA’s products and services to accommodate viewers who scan the page.
Explain what accreditation means
Promote educational opportunities, including events
Find a specific AAHA Guideline
