A few months ago, the NBC Industry Group contacted us inquiring about a redesign of their existing website.  While functional and informative, it needed a redesign to catch-up with contemporary design trends and best practices.  The navigation needed to be streamlined, the scrolling flash marquis needed to be removed, the design needed to be widened to utilize more of the page and the design needed to be updated to allow the NBC Industry Group to maximize their potential to recruit new members and better disseminate information to its existing members.

Our solution for the redesign:

• Improved the website navigation categories to be more intuitive and user-friendly. In the previous version of the website, there were several navigation category that needed to be improved; for example, “NBC Industry Group” and “Group Members”.  In each case, we renamed them using a more effective and intuitive title.
• Removed distracting animation from the homepage. Previously, there was a flash header that had animated slogans flying in from the left side of the screen, an animated logo containing an electron in orbit, and a vertically scrolling marquis promoting upcoming meetings.  Needless to say, it caused distraction and confusion among users.  We removed the animation from each of the three elements.  To address the flash header, we added a scrolling homepage frame consisting of five slides with background images and text overlaid on top to speak to the various groups NBC Industry Group serves.  We removed the animation from the logo and added an upcoming meetings callout dynamically pulling from the content management system (CMS) to replace the scrolling marquis.
• Promoted membership for prospective members. One of the major goals of the redesign was to attract new members.  To address, we renamed the former “Group Members” in the global navigation to “Membership” to be clearer.  Additionally, we added a “Join Us” callout on the homepage and every subpage for those that come to the website and those that look browse the site.  Lastly, we added pages to speak to the benefits of membership.
• Enlarged the amount of space being used for body content on each page.
• Improved the user interface of each form and implemented form validations. The website consists of three primary forms: membership application, membership renewal, and contact.  We improved the interface of each form and set-up form validations to prevent users from becoming members without providing accurate information and payment.  (In the previous version, a user was able to pass through each form by leaving all of the fields blank).
• Implemented a scalable CMS to manage all of the content. By working with our great friends at Vim Interactive, a team of skilled Baltimore ExpressionEngine Developers, the ExpressionEngine CMS was implemented to allow NBC Industry Group administrators to edit content, add new meetings — all very quickly and easily without any programming knowledge.

Overall, it was an incredible honor working with the NBC Industry Group.  They are committed to such an extraordinary mission and possess the most brilliant minds from all of the most respected companies and organizations in their industry.  Being Reef Light’s first non-profit web design project made it extra special.

Enjoy this before vs. after view of the homepage. 

View the redesigned website at www.nbcindustrygroup.com

About the NBC Industry Group:

The Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Industry Group is a non-profit association composed of 150+ companies, not-for-profit organizations, and consultants who support national and international chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNe) defense activities.  In addition to military defense against CBRNe weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the NBC Industry Group interests encompass domestic preparedness against WMDs, the Chemical Weapons Convention and other treaties. Member organizations also are actively involved in CBRNe programs that include destruction of WMDs around the world.

A couple days ago, Reef Light was featured in [Re]Encoded’s “40 Beautiful Uses of Typogragphy in Web Design” article. Please feel free to check it out here. (For those that aren’t familiar with [Re]Encoded, they are a very popular (150,000 page views/month) resource for web designers and developers, alike. )

We all (designers) are aware of the changing trends in web design industry and have something new and creative to see every day. I think we discussed enough regarding Typography in web and print design industry in our earlier articles and very well know the importance of Typography in web and print designs, so today we are here with  a round-up of beautiful web designs showing creative use of typography. (From Reencoded.com article)

Overall, it’s a great collection of beautiful websites. It’s an honor to be among them.

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Reef Light Interactive is an award-winning agency specializing in web design, search engine optimization and more! Like anyone else, Reef Light enjoys being featured, given a “high 5″, or receiving compliments.  Feel free to browse through some of our work and/or contact us to learn more about our services.