On Friday, SAF unveiled the “soft launch” of its new site, which is mobile responsive and more user-friendly. The new site also makes it easier for both members and prospective members to quickly find the information they need.
If you’ve visited safnow.org in the past five days — and we hope you have — you’ve probably noticed a new look.
On Friday, SAF unveiled the “soft launch” of its new site, which is mobile responsive more user-friendly.
“The percentage of visitors using mobile devices to access our site has grown steadily to about 32 percent,” said SAF Chief Information Officer Renato Sogueco, who’s guided the floral industry on becoming mobile responsive through articles in Floral Management and at SAF events. “And that number is going to continue to grow, so we need to be ready for that.”
The site update, the first overhaul in three years, drew on member feedback to reorganize content and is designed to help members, prospective members and the general public more quickly navigate to the information they need, said Kate Penn, SAF’s chief content and publishing officer and editor in chief of Floral Management.
“We wanted to step back and make sure the site navigation is really set up in a way that makes it easy for members to find what they’re looking for and non-members to understand what SAF is all about,” Penn explained. “We have so much content and products and services on our website, but we were not presenting it in a way that was very accessible.”
Based on SAF member needs assessment research and anecdotal feedback, news and business building tips are placed high up on the home page. “We also have a prominent spot to showcase our video, which we plan to do more of,” said Sogueco.
SAF also relied heavily on input from a web team that included SAF staff members who interact daily with industry members trying to use the site.
“That’s how we learned what people are looking for online as well as what they have the hardest time finding,” Penn said. One interesting discovery: that non-members could not always figure out how to actually join SAF. And current members often don’t know about all of the services and products they have access to through SAF. “We were burying our ‘join now’ and benefits pages and didn’t even realize it.” The new site gives a prominent spot to both.
One thing the website reboot did not involve? A lot of cash.
“We did it all internally, using a WordPress template (less than $100),” Sogeuco said. “It is also very easy to work in and change, so we see this as a work in progress. We will keep tweaking, adjusting based on member feedback.”
Check out the updated site and let us know what you think. Find a problem? Wish some information was even easier to access? We want to hear about it. Email kpenn@safnow.org.
