Data Insights at Your Fingertips: Innovating the Research Data Assistance Center's Online Presence
Need to develop, design, implement, or provide technical services to improve your web presence like Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) did? As an affiliate of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, ResDAC leveraged Nighthawk Marketing's Drupal CMS expertise to help support their initiatives.
Research Data Assistance Center Website
Established in 1996, the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC) is a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contractor that provides free assistance to researchers interested in the CMS data. As a CMS contractor, ResDAC provides assistance to academic, non-profit, for-profit, and government researchers. Their staff members have diverse skills and backgrounds, including epidemiology, public health, health services research, statistics, and health informatics. ResDAC faculty are actively involved in research using Medicare and Medicaid data. The ResDAC Assistance Desk is staffed by masters’ level Technical Advisors and Executive Advisors with specialized training on federal privacy rules.
The Need
ResDAC needed an experienced web agency to develop, design, implement, and provide technical services to improve their web presence. Due to the website’s age, they wanted to revise the site both in terms of visual design and some aspects of functionality. Major functional issues involve the search feature, identification of specific data request materials, workshop registration and administrative tools.
The Solution
For many users, the home page is their first impression, a point of entry, and an initial way finding tool. We designed and built the home page to be dynamic, visually pleasing, and seamlessly intuitive. From user experience research (UX) to design, to copywriting, the home page flawlessly communicated ResDAC’s identity and brand. The website was built to be flexible and adaptable since the website and its content would continually evolve. As such, the new design was flexible and user-friendly to content administrators so they could most effectively enact institutional priorities and respond to user needs. The design showcased and elevated their content, creating a sense of unity across the content of varying types, styles, and production sources.
