Restructuring an experience
Childrens’ Creative Learning Centers (CCLC) was looking to improve their web presence and clarify content paths to improve access to goal-appropriate content and ultimately increase enrollment at their childcare centers. Their old website had a narrow and deep structure with little content on the home page to explain the meaning behind “CCLC” or engage parents in the value of enrolling their child in a CCLC program. In addition to offering parents direct access to childcare centers, CCLC works directly with employers to offer on-site childcare for large corporations that want include that service as an employment benefit. They also needed to communicate with prospective teachers and showcase their educational philosophy and benefits of CCLC center.
With these three audiences in mind, we restructured the content to provide clear paths to audience-specific information while allowing cross-linking throughout the site to pertinent information that may not be a primary focus for a particular audience. We also increased the quantity of direct links into the site from the home page, helping to clarify what CCLC does and how their offerings pertain to different site visitors. The old site had a lot of content on it that was difficult to find, so by restructuring and surfacing much of that content we allow site visitors to find what they’re looking for more quickly.
Revitalizing the visual design
CCLC started off with a strong, fresh, vibrant color palette that needed a better presence on the site, along with more clarity around usage and styles. While keeping the site light and airy was important, we also wanted to bring in some richness and fun through imagery and brand-specific design motifs. By employing light textures in some elements and restrained use of drop shadows, we were able to provide visual focus on content blocks without adding to the visual weight of each page.
In looking at design solutions, we felt it was important to reference elements of “childcare” without making the site childish or too visually simplistic. CCLC works with Fortune 500 corporations to provide high-end childcare solutions, so the site needed to reflect both the industry as well as the level of polish and professionalism that CCLC offers.
Improving site traffic patterns
We were fortunate that CCLC had been tracking site traffic with Google Analytics for quite some time, so we had months of data to refer to when making architectural and design decisions. One interesting finding was that 80% of users that visited the home page first abandoned the site immediately, and the next most-visited areas within the site were for current clients and parents with enrolled children. Few visitors were exploring the site, requesting information, or learning about childcare programs. A click-through overlay of the home page indicated that practically no visitors clicked links on the home page at all!
In the redesigned site, providing more actionable links, basic contextual content, and audience-focused content sections has allowed visitors to find the information they were seeking and explore the site more fully. Post-launch trending shows that the site bounce rate is down to 65%, with a significant increase in visitors diving into more content about offerings for parents, locating childcare centers, and learning about CCLC. Overall site traffic has increased, and we’ll have enough data soon to help CCLC determine how to focus their keywords and other campaigns to increase organic and paid-search traffic.