The Challenge
BASES, the British Association of Sports and Exercise Science, had a website that had been developed over a number of years and contained thousands of pages and documents. The amount of content had massively out-grown the navigation structure and visitors often couldn't find the information they were seeking. The main challenge for the new website was to provide a navigation structure and site features that could handle the vast amount of information and allow for further content expansion - whilst being easy to navigate for all visitors.
The Approach
River CMS was used as the foundation for the new BASES website. The system can be designed with many navigation types and for BASES a global/sectional navigation style was chosen. The global navigation features 14 different sections - each section being structured with second and third level navigation that caters for multiple pages and other content. In addition, a number of River CMS modules were used to present news, case studies and directories in searchable list formats. A powerful site-wide word search facility was placed in the banner header to make it available on every page and callouts were used throughout the site to feature related content. It all adds up to allow visitors to easily and quickly find the information they are seeking.
The Results
The BASES membership love the new website. Within 6 weeks of its launch, visitor numbers to the site had increased by 20% making it one of the busiest in the Senior portfolio. Analysis of the website statistics suggests that all the major objectives of the new website design have being achieved - increased visitor numbers who view fewer pages for much longer - suggests that members were finding and reading what they were looking for- and returning time after time for more. Result!
Who is BASES?
BASES is the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, the professional body for sport and exercise sciences in the UK. The Association promotes good practice and excellence within all areas of sport and exercise sciences, including the application of scientific principles to the promotion, maintenance and enhancement of sport and exercise related behaviours.
Visit http://www.bases.org.uk