The American Concrete Institute (ACI), founded in 1904, is the world’s leading resource for concrete standards and education, with a diverse, global membership of 20,000 individuals and organizations. ACI partnered with TUG and the design agency Q Ltd for a website and brand initiative that culminated in developing a new responsive website, logo, tagline, and brand guidelines.
The Problem: Audience-Centric Structure Discouraged Discovery
The ACI website was structured to reflect their audience-centric focus, with a separate silo for each kind of user. While this seemed logical, it reduced the user to just one role, sending them down a predetermined path with all the decisions already made. Like being on a tour bus, this discourages discovery in favor of expediency. In reality, users are much more nuanced, and their needs are often multi-dimensional. The main goals for the new website were to increase usability, site-wide navigation, and awareness of ACI programs and membership benefits.
The Solution: Strategy, Planning and Information Architecture
TUG provided strategy, planning, and information architecture services. Member interviews confirmed that ACI’s membership consisted of four groups with different interests and needs. Key highlights were defining stakeholder goals and determining user expectations based on the four discovered user groups. The final deliverables included:
A strategic alignment map
A model which balanced the priorities and tensions of the personas and their journeys
A sitemap and wireframes
Before & After
How We Succeeded: In/Tension Modeling and User Expectations
Step 1: Deciding Together What Good Means
The architecture and planning phase in the construction industry is recognized as a critical part of any project. ACI approached its website redesign with the same rigor. ACI has diverse stakeholders, from the full-time team running day-to-day operations to industry professionals volunteering their expertise as board members. TUG engaged with them in deep discussions to define and prioritize project goals and measures of success.
At TUG, when we start collaborating on a new project, we use In/Tension modeling to help frame the discussion of what would be good to do and capture the collective intent of stakeholders and project owners. It is important to note that the two sides of the continuum are not mutually exclusive: they both represent essential aspects that must be addressed.
Step 2: Understanding User Expectations.
An essential part of the Analysis phase included interviews with members. These confirmed that ACI’s membership consisted of four groups with different interests and needs:
Engineers seeking information on standards and professional development events such as conferences
Contractors wanting up-to-date standards and certification materials. They also look for ways to improve their skills in local chapter meetings
Professors needing to locate research, participate in committees, and promote student competitions
Students looking for information on courses and student competitions.
Based on interviews, we created personas and a set of key tasks for each of them
TUG developed personas and user journeys to clearly understand who uses the ACI website and how they navigate within the digital space.
Epilogue
TUG delivered the sitemap and wireframes that defined the site structure and functionality. Q created three visual design concepts based on these documents, and ACI selected one for refinement. Additional page designs were defined, and then final HTML/CSS templates were delivered along with a web style guide.
ACI used member feedback to turn a site its members avoided into a modern place for collaboration and learning. The comprehensive, responsive website specifications resulted in:
A better membership experience, as shown in an increase in average visitor time-on-site (+40 seconds) and pages/session (+15%)
An increase in eCommerce conversion rate and average eCommerce order value (+38%)
TUG helped us ensure that our thousands of pages of information is presented in a logical and intuitive layout that allows users to quickly find the information they need.
— Ronald Burg, Executive Vice President