Charlotte AHEC Website Makeover

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Aesthetic Upfit Using Existing Code and Content

Charlotte AHEC (Area Health Education Center) operates under the umbrella of Carolinas Healthcare System. To coincide with the launch of a new design for carolinashealthcare.org, Charlotte AHEC wanted to give their site a makeover. Because a total redesign is in the works, this makeover's focus was aesthetic improvements to the existing code and content. A major focus was improving the navigation elements of the site to be more consistent and reliable. Another high priority item was to establish a visual hierarchy on the pages. As is often the case, I found that less is more for this website.

Charlotte AHEC Home Page Before the Makeover

After the Makeover

Before: Navigation is inconsistent, with section homepages using a 3-column main body format while other pages in the site incorporate a sidebar with sub-navigation links. The main navigation in the header is not cross-browser compatible and the visual hierarchy is very difficult to discern.

Before: Blue navigation bar at the bottom of this page appears on two pages only, and is not present on the pages to which it links.

After: The sidebar navigation is a consistent element on all pages, with minimal variation. The blue bar along the bottom is a constant on all pages, and header elements are integrated to occupy a smaller footprint while also allowing for nested navigation menus, quick links and retaining the contact information and breadcrumbs.

Before: Many pages have very little content or redundant information.

After: Pages with minimal content are grouped logically onto single pages or sub page content is moved to a higher level to allow for elimination of excessive pages within a section.