Gold MarCom Award in the Category: Web Based | Website | 416. Nonprofit
Awarded by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP).
Website Design & Development
Content Strategy
SEO in Build
Accessibility
We helped NCEES make licensure information for engineers and surveyors easily accessible through a content-driven website with a modern design for all screen sizes.
”Our newly designed website supports our mission to safeguard the welfare of the public by advancing professional licensure for engineers and surveyors. Our website connects our audiences to the information they need and further supports test takers and industry professionals in their pursuit of licensure and beyond!
Jacob BarkerMarketing Communications and Outreach Strategist
Background
As the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, NCEES supports engineers and surveyors across the globe by advancing licensure to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
Objectives
- Make exam information easy to find for engineers and surveyors by organizing the contents to reflect the needs of that specific user group.
- Effectively design the new website with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind to maintain, and ideally exceed, rankings from the previous site.
- Reflect the NCEES brand standards across the website with consistency across all platforms and screen sizes.
- Design with accessibility in mind for all audience groups by following WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA recommendations.
- Ultimately, ensure that the new website is easy for the NCEES team to update moving forward.
Solution
- NCEES has an audience that spans the globe. The new site needed to communicate the vision of NCEES while directing users to the information they need while being easy to navigate.
- To achieve the above, the Engenius team streamlined the navigation, directing users to what they needed most. By basing this organization on the different user groups, site visitors are able to find exams, licensure, and other services quickly.
- While licensure and exam information are top priorities for NCEES users, it was also important to offer information centered around preparing for these exams, the licensure process, and the organization as a whole. The entire navigation gives users direct guidance to these different groupings of information.
- The Engenius team made special efforts to incorporate the unique design of the NCEES logo throughout various elements of the new website. Aside from colors and following brand guidelines, the Engenius team included nods to the engineering and surveying industries with different textures, icons, and design elements.
- The NCEES team needed their customers and members to have easy access to the MyNCEES platform. Engenius was able to incorporate this into the navigation and use the same design elements listed above to keep it cohesive with the rest of the site.
- It was important to make sure the entire NCEES site was accessible for users with disabilities, so the Engenius team followed WCAG 2.1 Level A/AA recommendations.
- The NCEES team wanted to avoid language barriers across site users, so Engenius included a translator directly on the site. Users can now translate the entire site in six different languages.
- In an effort to ensure the user is able to find exactly what they need, Engenius incorporated a full site search function that users can access at any time in the utility navigation.
- Following the launch of the website, the Engenius team hosted a training session for the NCEES team and provided a recording of the training along with a PDF manual of instructions.
- Since the new NCEES site has a high volume of traffic, the Engenius team worked to create a customized support plan to give NCEES’s site visitors the best possible experience.
