RAND Corporation (2006)

The mission was to provide a fresh design that attracted mainstream interest while maintaining the company's core research and analysis focus.

Overview

• Size: 20 sections, approximately 40,000 pages
• Complexity: HTML, CSS, RSS, XML, Javascript, Perl
• Maintenance: Daily

Challenges:

• To balance the desires of inwardly focused researchers with a corporate mandate to create a more marketing-oriented site.
• Establish the use of a Content Management System to facilitate moving over 35,000 reports and publications into a new e-commerce system.
• To create a system of corporate templates under which RAND's 70 division, center and project sites could easily be incorporated.

This site is the outcome of eleven design concepts presented to an oversight committee comprised of senior management. Research conducted by RAND's ten divisions is sorted and compiled into 15 distinct research areas to make finding research on a particular topic easier. Special channel links provided on the homepage address the needs of special audiences, such as donors, the media, and members of Congress. The introduction of large theme images lend visual interest while a homepage slide show provides a visual history of RAND's many contributions to the world.