During Symposium 2011, attendees had the chance to meet with MBS’ team of dedicated web designers for a one-on-one consultation over their website in the Website Care Clinic!  Introduced for the first time this year, the session was a success with a steady stream of visitors dropping by throughout the three-day event.

“It was so nice to have a critique from an outside perspective,” explained Karen Katt, director of Blue Colt Bookstore. “I thought it was a great addition to Symposium.”

Before attending the session, Katt created a list of goals she wanted to accomplish on her store’s site as a starting point for the discussion.

“Our inSite page was very static, so I went in to the session looking for some suggestions on how to make it more interactive,” she said. “Patrick Davis, who both helped in the Clinic and is our inSite Representative, showed me a variety of other stores’ sites to help generate ideas and decide what type of format and overall presence we wanted to project.”

After seeing different examples, Katt was able to more clearly construct a vision for her own site.

“It was very helpful to see samples; I could pick out the features that I liked while eliminating those I didn’t,” she added. “Using those examples as inspiration, we were able to come up with a great plan.”

After Symposium, Katt used the feedback she received in the Website Care Clinic to make some exciting changes.

“Based on Patrick’s input, we decided to upgrade to inSite Content Design Manager (iCM) when we got back home,” she described. “We’ve since added new features like scrolling banners and drop down tabs using iCM that have given us the interactive feel we were looking for. We’re very happy with the results!”

The store isn’t the only one enjoying the changes, though.

“We’ve had more people visit the site since we made the changes and I think that will only continue to increase because our content is now ever-changing,” she said. “iCM has given us the opportunity to update our website more frequently, and people enjoy coming back to explore the new changes.”

Katt attributes some of the success of the new site to the help she received in the Clinic.

“We’re very fortunate to have Patrick as our Representative,” she said. “He’s been fantastic and a huge help in the process!”

Blue Colt Bookstore isn’t the only store who had a positive experience in the session, either. Julie Fering, marketing & sales manager at UMD Stores, also gained great advice by attending.

“I went to the Clinic looking for a fresh set of eyes for my iCM home page,” she explained. “We already had a basic structure in place, but I felt like some small changes would make it even better.”

Fering discussed the few areas she wanted to improve during the session.

“Our classic site continues to grow, and it’s a struggle to figure out where to put everything, while maintaining a clutter-free page with intuitive navigation. My other concern was how to incorporate our school colors, which are very bold, in a way that appears more ‘clean,’” she said.

The inSite Representatives who hosted the session generated several ideas on how to enhance the store’s site.

“Patrick Davis and Derrick Ray both offered suggestions for adding subtle texture, page wrappers, background logos and other similar features,” she added.

Although the store has not yet implemented these elements, they were grateful for the feedback and are looking forward to a new layout.

“We are still in the process of incorporating the new changes, but we’re excited to see the results!”

Did you attend the Website Care Clinic? What was your favorite part? Share your experience by commenting below!

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