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A Large Website with e-Commerce Applications for a Leading Financial Institution

Freddie Mac, the financer of one in every six homes in the United States, is one of the country’s largest financial services institutions. It not only links homeowners and renter to the world’s capital markets, but also provides a wealth of mortgage and housing information for various audiences. In response to increased use of its Web channel and demand for a more usable site, Freddie Mac asked NavigationArts to help evaluate opportunities for enhancing its Web presence and create a new, user-centered website that better conformed to the goals of regular visitors.

Working closely with Freddie Mac, NavigationArts performed several steps of analysis to identify audience types, prioritize user needs, and compile applicable Web best practices. It then created a series of concepts for the new site and tested those models with a broad set of representative audiences to select and optimize the best approach. After leading Freddie Mac decision makers through an efficient evaluation of more than 20 unique designs, the NavigationArts project team moved into development and began implementing an advanced content management system.

Project results included:

• Dramatic improvements in online user interactions and user success, confirmed by post-launch user testing
• A comprehensive content management system that facilitates site-wide alterations with minimal impact
• Successful implementation of a company-wide initiative to standardize the Web enterprise at Freddie Mac
• Shortly after website launch, a full NavigationArts-directed redesign of the Freddie Mac corporate identity
• UI templates for Interwoven TeamSite integration
• Scripts using Javascript namespaces for code isolation
• Introduction of Web standards-based coding to client team
• Site QA, CSS, and UI scripting support during implementation