A Seamless Home for ACSESS Members
Simpler navigation, 25% fewer pages, and a unified experience across three leading science societies.
We've gotten rid of or merged no fewer than seven websites, deleted or merged 786 web pages, launched eight brand new websites (including of course our massive magazine backlog), and improved a TON on our user experience, all since we got your first proposal in December of 2023, only a year and a half! You and your team should be immensely proud of all that you've done, and I hope you know how proud I am of what we've done and the opportunity and honor to work with such diligent experts.
介绍 UMN 医学院的故事
The Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS)—formed by ASA, CSSA, and SSSA—represents over 7,900 members and 13,000 certified professionals in the agricultural and environmental sciences.
Faced with three outdated websites and mounting technical debt, ACSESS partnered with O8 to create a unified Drupal platform that streamlined content, reduced maintenance, and delivered a seamless digital experience for members and staff alike.
挑战
Fragmented Sites, Outdated Experience
ACSESS's online ecosystem had become a barrier to effectively serving its members and managing its internal operations. The core challenges included:
Outdated Design
The existing theme was visually dated and failed to meet modern UX expectations—diminishing credibility and making the site difficult to navigate on mobile.
Content Redundancy
Each society maintained its own website, leading to a large volume of duplicated content. This not only confused users but also created a significant maintenance burden for the internal team.
Disjointed User Journeys
The site’s information architecture lacked clarity. Users often hit dead ends due to missing cross-links, inconsistent CTAs, and an unclear pathway between content hubs.
Mounting Technical Debt
Years of custom-coded patches left the Drupal backend unstable, costly to maintain, and difficult to upgrade—making simple updates risky and time-consuming.
范围
- Content strategy
- UX & IA evaluation
- Drupal website redesign
- Content consolidation
- Agile development
- Cross-site navigation strategy
- CMS training & empowerment
为什么 UMN 医学院选择 O8 for Drupal？
ACSESS needed more than a vendor—they wanted a partner that could balance technical complexity with organizational nuance.
O8’s experience with Drupal, proven discovery process, and reputation for transparent collaboration made us the right fit. Regular working sessions and strategic planning gave ACSESS confidence we’d meet stakeholder needs across all societies.
O8 如何应对
We began with deep discovery and stakeholder interviews, followed by iterative UX and architecture planning.
Our team consolidated shared content into a new domain that served as a central knowledge base, then redesigned each society site to focus on specific member needs.
The entire platform was rebuilt on the latest version of Drupal using best practices to ensure long-term stability and ease of use.
To address these multifaceted challenges, a comprehensive rebuild of the entire web ecosystem was required.
We determined the most effective approach was to consolidate all shared information into a new, single domain that would serve as a central knowledge base for all three associations.
This strategic move allowed us to:
- Eliminate Redundancy: By creating a single source of truth for shared resources, we drastically reduced the volume of content across the individual association sites.
- Focus on Core Missions: With shared content centralized, we could redesign each society's website to focus exclusively on content and resources that served their specific members and organizational goals.
- Create a Connected Ecosystem: We designed the new structure with intuitive navigation, making it easy for users to move seamlessly between the central knowledgebase and the specialized content on the individual association sites.
为什么 UMN 医学院选择 O8 for Drupal？
The project kicked off in February 2024 and was completed on schedule by November 2024, aligning with the original 8–10 month timeline. Using an Agile approach, our team worked in two-week sprints across five key phases:
- Discovery & UX Architecture Evaluation
- Design
- Development
- Quality Assurance
- Launch
A cornerstone of the project’s success was our close collaboration with ACSESS leadership, including the web manager and CEO. Regular check-ins and strategy sessions ensured alignment with each society’s unique needs while advancing the broader goals of the parent organization.
结果
ACSESS now operates a modern, stable, and intuitive web ecosystem.
Page count was reduced by over 25%, user journeys were streamlined, and redundant content was eliminated
Streamlined Content & Improved UX
By eliminating duplicate content and simplifying the structure, we reduced the total number of site pages by over 25%, enabling a faster, more intuitive user experience.
Reduced Technical Debt & Empowered Staff
Rebuilding the site on the latest version of Drupal eliminated legacy issues and established a best-practice development workflow. A new, flexible page-builder system now allows ACSESS’s internal team to manage updates more efficiently and with confidence.
Unified Brand Experience Across Sites
Users can now seamlessly navigate between CANVAS, Crops & Soils, and Agronomy resources with consistent branding and navigation. The result is a cohesive, modern identity that reinforces trust and credibility.
Impact at a Glance
- Reduced maintenance hours → faster updates, lower costs
- Unified UX → improved member engagement and retention
- Stable infrastructure → lower risk, easier scaling
Redesigned for a modern, efficient, user-friendly, and secure experience
A Unified Digital Experience
It is difficult to describe the flush of pride I just felt... where I was able to click into CANVAS, Crops & Soils, and Agronomy pages seamlessly with all of the nav staying the same. In case I haven't said it lately, you all do incredible work and should be super proud of this project.
