Corwin Press
Corwin Press, an affiliate of SAGE Publications USA, provides professional development solutions including professional books, consulting, training, online courses and other resources and services for K-12 educators. Based in Thousand Oaks, California, and with offices in Australia, Canada and the UK, Corwin Press has more than 500 books in print that have supported many millions of educators.
With its extensive offering of products and services, Corwin Press sought to simplify and streamline their website presentation. Over the years as the company diversified, Corwin frequently added new content to the website, which affected navigability. The company recognized the need to improve the user experience and make it more intuitive.
Company leaders at Corwin Press asked Visus LLC to redesign a new website so they could provide a more consistent and cohesive experience for their customers. The Visus team began the project with a thorough analysis of the website to identify its strengths and weaknesses and to build an understanding of how information was presented. Then they conducted a strategic activity called journey mapping—directing meetings with department leaders that represent the many specific areas of focus at Corwin Press.
I have worked on website redesigns with global companies in the past. The website redesign by Visus LLC is the best example of listening and interpreting the multitude of opinions for our company’s new design. It came together so well. I’m thrilled!
“The journey mapping exercise led us through a deep examination of our customers to build an understanding of the various needs and roles different personas have and the most efficient ways to display our portfolio based on that knowledge,” says Elena Nikitina, vice president of marketing and channel development at Corwin Press. “It helped us organize our thinking about who our customers are and how they can potentially interact with the website.”
“The Visus team took a customer-centric approach,” adds Maura Sullivan, marketing strategist at Corwin Press. “Before they even recommended any changes to the website, they challenged us to carefully consider how customers use it. That was very helpful and it drove a lot of our decisions about the redesign.”
Once customer personas and their needs were defined, the Visus team guided department leaders through a meticulous analysis of their website. Together they examined each element on every page from the perspectives of different user personas. They identified places where customers who sought to find a specific book or piece of information might be sidetracked or distracted by extraneous content that should be elsewhere on the site.
I appreciate the expertise, clarity and confidence Visus brought to this project. They kept us focused on providing an excellent shopping experience and making it easier for our customers to find the information they want.
To expand the perspective, the Visus team then led Corwin marketing professionals and other staff through a competitive research analysis to assess how competitors presented similar information online. They also examined metrics from Google Analytics about how visitors used the Corwin Press site.
“The group meetings with Visus flowed very naturally and conversation was easy,” says Amanda Boudria, executive marketing manager at Corwin Press. “The Visus team not only led analysis and discussions about our website and our competitors’ websites, they also challenged us to look at examples outside our industry to see how complex information was offered online in other industries. That gave us valuable insight.”
I was so impressed by the work Visus did and their technical expertise. This was an educational experience for us in terms of the mechanics of a website and redesigning our e-commerce presence, so it is as efficient and intuitive as possible for our customers.
Visus created wireframe prototypes for each page on the Corwin Press website. The Visus team methodically reorganized how information was presented across all topics including books, consultants, resources, authors and events. They also suggested new functionality such as a search filter to help customers refine results, and they created alternate versions of the website to account for regional differences at Corwin Press global locations.
“Every element of the redesigned site was well thought out and had a justifiable purpose for its inclusion and placement,” Nikitina says. “Visus explained the reasoning behind every decision, and that really empowered us.”
Boudria describes an example of the process. “There were places where we might want to put ten different elements on a page,” she says. “The Visus team would suggest we only use three or four in that location and move the other content somewhere else on the site where it would have better impact and provide a great user experience. They did that beautifully.”
The new website redesign by Visus LLC is amazing. It’s going to be a real game changer for us. It will provide us with a solid platform to help our clients and it will make things easier for our sales team. Wow!
The website redesign transforms a website that was difficult to navigate into a clear and concise presentation of the products and services Corwin Press offers. “Visus definitely succeeded in helping us meet our business objectives with this project,” Nikitina concludes. “Once fully implemented we anticipate we will see an increase in traffic, engagement and sales through our website because of this redesign.”
An enthusiastic Sign up! Visus has assisted us most in clarifying our vision, strategy and execution for our corporate website redesign—all the while acknowledging, facilitating and weighing different points of view across a wide swath of stakeholders and opinions. They created protocols and hierarchies to keep the project on track and on target, and they adhered to online best practices and efficiencies. The highest of possible recommendations.
Amanda Boudria
Executive Marketing Manager,
Corwin Press
Chris Devling
Managing Director,
Corwin Press
Doug Frankie
Sales Director,
Senior Professional Learning Advisor,
Corwin Press
Elena Nikitina
Vice President of Marketing and Channel Development,
Corwin Press