Association for Iron & Steel Technology

2014 WebAward Winner - Website Redesign with Kentico CMS & iMIS AMS

Background:

The Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) is a nonprofit organization with 16,500 members from more than 70 countries. With 29 Technology Committees and 22 Local Members Chapters, AIST represents an incomparable network of steel industry knowledge and expertise.

Case Study

Solution Highlights:

CMS & AMS Implementation & Integration
CMS Implementation
Content Classification & Prioritization
Full Discovery, Information Architecture, & Usability Testing
Mobile-Friendly, Responsive Design
Technology Assessment & Integration
User Experience (UX) & User Interface (UI) Design

Technologies Used:

.NET
ASI’s iMIS AMS
Custom Micronexx-Developed Library
Kentico CMS

“Our team did a great job fulfilling this objective, and I commend the hard work and dedication of AIST members, staff and ATS to continually exceed expectations.”

Ronald Ashburn, Executive Director

Challenges:

With geographically dispersed chapters and members, AIST faced a strong need to:

Build a more responsive, intuitive, informative, and engaging website that would allow it to successfully connect with its remote constituents worldwide;
Consolidate, modernize, and enhance the usability of its multiple microsites that lacked a common theme but were associated with its public-facing website; and
Replace its custom-built Steel News database, where the file transfer protocol (FPT) process was making it difficult for its staff to manage and update the website.

Goal:

AIST was looking for a partner who could help modernize its website’s interface, consolidate the microsites that lacked continuity, and make the website easier, reliable, and scalable for its staff to manage.

Solutions:

ATS collaborated closely with the AIST team to develop and implement a mobile-friendly website with an effective content strategy, which covered:

A full discovery and information architecture process, including content classification and prioritization;
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design with an emphasis on usability;
Kentico content management system (CMS) implementation and training;
Back-end system integration with iMIS association management system (AMS) and other systems that AIST had in place; and
Ongoing website support.

Results:

In 2014, AIST’s redesigned website was selected out of 1500 entries in over 40 countries to win a Web Marketing Association’s WebAward.

The new mobile-friendly and responsive website boasts of a professional, clean, and user-friendly design, further advancing its image and reputation as an international thought leader in the iron and steel technology industry.
Mobile users can now access and search the website quickly and easily.
AIST’s staff can update content in only one-sixth of the time it used to take them to work with the previous FTP database.
AIST members have also reported-in with positive reviews of the new look, structure, and responsiveness.

ATS Team