Corrections Corporation
of America
- Information Architecture
- design
- development
- strategy
Project Highlights
- A robust admin for multiple sites that's still user-friendly.
- Clean code and better content management for truly great SEO.
- Project management makes sure every decision-maker is valued.
The Challenge:
Information overload: when one website just won't do
CCA is big, really big. Their parent website alone has hundreds of pages. Before they came to us, the content organization was difficult for users and frustrating for CCA personnel. Plus, since they get hundreds of job applications each day, they needed a greater focus on using the website as a job application tool. Managing copywriting, assets, job applications and even vendor relations became quite a headache for CCA.
The Answer:
Information Architecture
Our first point of action was to help our client get a handle on what content existed, and whether or not it was still relevant. Creating a comprehensive site map allowed us to determine a logical organization for everything.
We also realized that creating multiple sites would help greatly by allowing critical messages and topics to be self-contained and easily found by the right audience.
To date, we've created 3 sites for CCA, with still more to come: correctionscorp.com, insidecca.com, and ccacommunities.com. The multiple sites also helped us implement part of an important SEO strategy they greatly needed.
Content management contained
With such a large body of content that's always growing, CCA has multiple people who need to access and edit content. We created a very user-friendly admin that allows multiple users with variable levels of access to edit the site. Written copy, photos and even videos are easily stored and managed through a main database.
Points of pain relief
InsideCCA is a great example of how we eased a point of pain for our client. With print publishing costs increasing and the information flow more time sensitive, CCA wanted to take two hardcopy newsletters online. More importantly, they wanted to leverage the interactivity of the web to post videos, get user feedback, as well as create polls, photo galleries, and publish articles on demand.
Insidecca.com is a living, breathing example of a dynamic website totally managed through our website administration tool, Silo. It can handle everything from the polls to posting photos and videos and publishing articles in multiple categories. CCA can now publish more content more often and have a robust archive of valuable content searchable by category or keyword. Their search engine "findability" has been greatly enhanced by having top-notch content indexed and searchable by Google.
We also helped them develop an online job application process. CCA is pretty serious about who they hire for their correctional facilities. Now, their extensive application process is online with all information stored in a secure database. The online application application even helps "score" submissions to speed the process of selection. Both prospective applicants and CCA Human Resources personnel have a much easier experience thanks to an easy-to-use online process.
We've even got more CCA sites in the works. To date, we've built 3 sites for CCA: correctionscorp.com, insidecca.com, and ccacommunities.com.
Special Skills:
While every cabedge project generally involves most or all of our areas of expertise, we did flex our muscles in a couple of key areas.
Project Management
Our resident "unsung heroes", project managers are often overlooked. They manage every job that comes though cabedge, but with CCA their contributions can't go overlooked. It was their ability to collaborate and provide sound strategy to our client that truly allowed us to find the right answers. CCA is a large organization with many decision-makers. Our project managers have developed a close working relationship with CCA, and make sure everyone gets the information and answers they need.
Development
This project, more than most, is like an iceberg. So much more is below the surface than most people see. With hundreds of assets and more pages than you'd care to count, the administrative back-end of the CCA sites work smoothly and is easily used by both cabedge folks and CCA personnel. With this project we truly appreciate the creativity involved with development and coding.
Brite Revolution
- Information Architecture
- copywriting
- design
- development
- ecommerce
- publicity
- strategy
Project Highlights
- A verbal and visual identity which immediately reveals the personality.
- Media management so simple the client could handle it from day one.
- Ongoing publicity keeps the new service growing.
The Challenge:
Brite Entertainment had a unique idea of combining new music downloads and philanthropy into a new service: Brite Revolution. Many businesses need a web presence as the communications hub of offline business. Brite's business is their website.
Their users needed to be able to sample songs, subscribe to the service and download media files on a regular basis. The client needed the ability to upload the files, schedule release dates, add new artists, and manage dozens of other backend functions of the site in an easy, non-techie way.
Oh, and they also wanted their audience to discover their new service in the first place.
The Answer:
Messaging and user experience
The folks at Brite had a solid grasp of their goals when they came to us. We spent time learning about their philosophy and needs and helped them form their corporate identity. Along with a logo, we presented a palette of colors, design aesthetics, and samples of written copy to establish their voice and approach. Once decided, the rest moved much quicker.
Content development and design worked closely together on this one. The user experience was created with extensive wireframing to make sure every functional detail was present. We wrote copy that quickly revealed their philosophy and the benefits of Brite Revolution to users. Using the wireframes and content as guides, our designers created a user interface that fit the style of Brite and made it easy for users to get what they needed.
User friendly in front and back
Every function of a website needs to work well, regardless of what it is. But, the music player and downloads, as well as the registration process, were especially critical on this project. The music player ended up being a combination of Javascript and Flash files. Not only did it work smoothly, but the song titles and artist names are now visible to Google and other search engines. The ecommerce engine allows users to securely enter their information, choose a charity to support and start downloading tunes after just a few screens in minutes.
The client also needed to manage the music, subscribers, and all content on a daily basis without the need of a third party. Our developers created a backend just as intuitive as the front end. After all, clients are users too.
The need to tell others to help others
Fortunately, the launch was incredibly smooth; they had their first subscriber, literally, within minutes. Now, the challenge is to tell the world. This is where our publicity team gets to work. Making strategic media contacts, creating Brite Bubbles to pass out at events and even planning a few events of our own is just the beginning. Brite wants to change the music industry and increase charitable giving at the same time and people are responding with great enthusiasm. The benefits of their service are obvious to others; all we're doing now is getting them connected to an audience ready and willing for the Revolution.
