hodgsonConsulting

About ACS

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world’s largest scientific society and one of the world’s leading sources of authoritative scientific information. A nonprofit organization chartered by Congress, ACS is at the forefront of the evolving worldwide chemical enterprise and the premier professional home for chemists, chemical engineers and related professions around the globe.

The Challenge

Because the United Nations declared 2011 the International Year of Chemistry (IYC), ACS contracted Hodgson to redesign their IYC site (iyc2011.acs.org) and implement a CMS so that they could take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote the field of chemistry. ACS was interested in creating a redesigned presence for their IYC-related pages in order to convey excitement and energy about IYC and to serve as a call to action for IYC-related activities. The redesign was also to allow for a more robust, energetic visual program.

The Solution

The redesign and WordPress CMS implementation were successful thanks to Hodgson’s proven five-step process (Define, Design, Develop, Integrate and Operate), which facilitated the delivery of the fully functional IYC site, complete with an inspiring, professional look and feel. This process provided consistent, clear communication with ACS through status meetings, design presentations and email contact; it also allowed Hodgson’s web professionals to execute all phases of the project effectively.

Hodgson implemented the WordPress CMS for the following reasons:

• Cost—Because WordPress is open source, there are no licensing costs, maintenance fees or software fees.
• Usability—Thanks to the truly flexible and intuitive content editing environment in WordPress, content providers are able to create content just as if they were using MS Word. No expertise in web technology or code is required.
• Features—WordPress provides many features as part of its core “out of the box” functionality, some of which are as follows: WYSIWYG editor (text, audio and video), workflow, version control and site search.

Over a period of four months, Hodgson utilized the following resources to redesign and develop the IYC website: a project manager, a designer, a developer and a QA / QC resource. Upon completion of the project, Hodgson had delivered an approved interface design, a fully functional WordPress website complete with mobile templates and a WordPress training manual.