The Challenge

The Commander, Naval Installations Command (CNIC), oversees all ashore Naval installations throughout the world. The command owns more than 100 Web sites that represent installations and programs. These sites were built on different technology platforms, with inconsistent designs, and diverse management protocols.

The Navy wanted to migrate its CNIC Web sites into one content management platform and standardize information architecture, design, and management. Standardization would have an added benefit of reducing the cost and burden of technical maintenance and Web content management.

The migrated and redesigned sites were required to comply with Section 508, W3C, and federal Web site guidelines (e.g., OMB, DoD, and DoN guidelines and directives).

The Outcome

CNIC chose the Stellent content management platform. Olkin Communications Consulting to provide usability, information architecture, user experience, and content management expertise.

After analyzing the current sites and the audiences they serve, we wrote a user experience concept for the redesigned Web sites and developed an information architecture that would standardize the presentation of content across all 100+ Web sites.

We then wrote requirements for a set of content management templates that would serve all sites. The template requirements offered the following benefits:

• limited number of templates, for limited cost and training burden
• standard information design (page layout) that can be layered with different designs, using CSS
• standard set of style sheets for consistency across sites
• clean, consistent, dynamic navigation menus
• "e-mail a friend" feature
• printer-friendly feature
• RSS/XML capability
• mobile device accessibility
• Section 508 compliance
• compliance with industry standard usability guidelines

Additionally, we managed visual design to ensure that the new look and feel of the sites would support the desired user experience and the Navy's communications goals for the CNIC.

The redesigned CNIC headquarters site is an example of the new sites.

SharePoint Portal Information Architecture and User Requirements

Olkin Communications Consulting was reengaged by CNIC in 2008 to gather user requirements and establish a new information architecture for a new SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) portal that launched in June 2008. The new portal is an internal communications and collaboration platform that will serve personnel at CNIC headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in 13 Navy regions worldwide.