Who? What?

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation's leading resource for the self-employed, providing a broad range of benefits and support to help the smallest businesses succeed. The NASE was founded in 1981 by a group of small-business owners in search of a structure of day-to-day support, benefits and consolidated buying power that traditionally had been available only to large corporations.

Why Bright Corner?

NASE wanted their Web site to be "the homepage for the micro business owner". Their Web site, NASE.org, had gathered volumes of valuable information and was starting to outgrow the existing information architecture.

Redesign of NASE.org was imminent with an emphasis on creating an information architecture and visual design that attracted and steered their users in the right directions.

Process

The challenge before Bright Corner was to understand the vast and diverse user base serviced by NASE. Audience segmentation through a myriad of interviews and research provided a foundation that would foster concepts for the future organization of NASE.org. The Bright Corner consultants worked with the NASE team to draft user scenarios based on role playing exercises with the executive team as well as information obtained directly from the end users.

Analyzing the information garnered made it clear to the Bright Corner and NASE team that:

• The Web site was currently overwhelming the user with the information being presented.
• The diverse user group could be classified into two primary categories based on their high level goals.
• There was a lack of consistency in the Benefits information provided across multiple Web sites for the same vendor.
• The visual design was dated and no longer in synch with other marketing collateral.

These basic insights shaped a concept fundamental in design with far reaching implications. The NASE.org site was transformed into a brochure corporate site for prospects and a detailed information rich MyNASE site for existing members available on logging in. With the strategic vision in place, the team began to focus on the information architecture that would organize the copious amounts of content being delivered.

The overriding strategic vision facilitated creation of the site map and archetype screen details that formed the cornerstone of the information architecture. The goals and priorities of the user groups dictated the high level classifications and navigation structure. A delicate balance of global menus, local navigation points, gateway pages and a composite array of relational links was woven to mask the overwhelming nature of the information. The team then began to create the visual signatures that would establish the NASE brand identity amongst the micro businesses. The influence of the brand identity has trickled to all supporting marketing collateral.

The benefits information provided by NASE is a critical part of the products offered. The sales agents "Enrollers" depend on the information being accurate and consistent. Bright Corner worked with NASE to build a Benefits Content Management System (BCMS). The centralized store of benefit information, the ability to make content updates easily and the ability to deliver content per the requirements of the Web site making the request have proven to be valuable in establishing accurate and consistent benefit information across the organization. The NASE Web site's benefit content is driven by the BCMS engine.

The Results?

Truly inspiring for us! Number of visitors to the NASE.org Web site peaked soon after the redesign. More gratifying was the fact that the conversion rates were at record high levels. The MyNASE area has become a conduit for personalization taking on the form of a dashboard custom tailored to each user group. Enrollers and marketing managers have been extremely appreciative of the BCMS integration with the Web site. NASE continues to utilize the services of Bright Corner to explore and implement strategies that align with the fundamental vision. Check out the NASE site at NASE.org.