The Client
The Autism Society, the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization, exists to improve the lives of all affected by autism. Autism Society does this by increasing public awareness about the day-to-day issues faced by people on the spectrum, advocating for appropriate services for individuals across the lifespan, and providing the latest information regarding treatment, education, research and advocacy.

The Problem
Autism Society partnered with Convio to redesign Autism-Society.org three years ago. The goal for the initial redesign was to make Autism Society’s website the go-to place on the web for parents and families who are affected by autism. The first redesign was very successful in achieving this objective, and resulted in tens of thousands of new visits per month. However, Autism Society knew they needed to continue to measure, evaluate, and improve their website to take their online presence to a higher level. Additionally, since the organization had recently shifted to a more global focus, it needed to update the website’s images and messaging to reflect this change. Once again, Autism Society came to Convio to embark on a new website redesign. They also selected the Convio CMS platform to allow for greater automation of workflow and easier maintenance of website content.

How We Solved It
Through the previous redesign process, Autism Society learned the value of user research. In preparation for this redesign, the Autism Society team conducted some audience research that gave the project team a head start for the new redesign. Convio was able to leverage the data gathered, combined with information from additional research, to learn that the new Autism-Society.org needed to provide easier access to audience-specific content for families and those on the autism spectrum. The information architecture and content population processes were streamlined using Autism Society’s comprehensive inventory of the content on their site. Convio was able to identify the most popular and pertinent content on the existing site, and ensured it was quick and easy to find that information on the redesigned site.

The Outcome
Since the launch of the new Autism-Society.org, the organization has seen improvements in their online traffic:

• Bounce rate have decreased, meaning that fewer users leave the website without clicking any links
• Number of pages per visit has increased 
• Average time spent on the website has increased

The changes made during the site redesign have encouraged constituents online to stay on the site longer and engage more with the organization. Additionally, Autism Society is now able to keep the website dynamic and up-to-date using Convio CMS. The fresh content has opened the door for more repeat visitors and stronger, on-going relationships with constituents.

Convio products used: Advocacy, Events, Fundraising, Web Content Management