The Minnesota Academy of Science was formed in 1873, and has a mission of promoting excellence in science throughout the state of Minnesota.  The Academy was going through a great deal of structural change and was redefining its goals and mission. Their constituency was growing, and the purpose of the website was changing.  We were engaged to redesign their website during these changes and so did in stages. Here is how we did.

The original site we were given was clean but lacking.  A visitor coming to the site for the first time had difficulty using it.    They couldn't figure out what the Academy was, what the site was for, and often couldn't find what they wanted.  However, when the original site was designed, the Academy's primary work was limited to presenting 6 science competitions during the school year. With that goal in mind, the original Academy website had been designed to:

1.) Allow people to register for events

2.) Allow dues paying members to log in

Most of the website was focused on information about each of the Academy's programs. The amount of information needed for each event was extensive, and was accessed through sub-menus. A sample layout for a program's site is: