Education Minnesota Launches New and Improved Website

High Monkey is pleased to announce the launch of the new Education Minnesota website serving education professionals throughout Minnesota. The new website www.educationminnesota.org is powered by the Kentico CMS platform and is a result of a collaboration of creative energies from the High Monkey and Education Minnesota web teams.

High Monkey began a dialog with Education Minnesota in July 2012. Our conversations focused primarily on the application of Usability Testing to address concerns about the overall effectiveness of the previous website.

To determine the best solutions for this project we asked the users. By conducting user research such as usability testing, card sorts and focus groups we knew the solutions would work. From redesigning the page layouts and navigation, to rethinking where secure content was displayed and how content would display on mobile devices; it was all driven by feedback from users.

Knowing the calendar was such a pain point for users we knew we had to get it right. It had to be intuitive, fast and easy for Education Minnesota to manage. The new calendar provides an intuitive interface with the ability to filter by dates and types of events. Furthermore, it provides all of these features and the ability to see "more details" about the event without ever loading a new page. This instantaneous feedback is sure to exceed performance expectations.

Access for mobile users was also an important consideration for the new website. The four images below illustrate how easy it is to navigate the website with a handheld device.

Results:

A website with a clean and simple feel

Intuitive navigation controls

A website that is easy for Education Minnesota staff to manage and grow.

An events calendar with individual labels proving the opportunity to filter the calendar by types of events.

A more consistent look and feel to the Education Minnesota website.

A website with a modern look that provides high level functionality.

A clear concise understanding to the navigation and sub navigation of the site