The Client
The Autism Society of America (ASA), the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization, exists to improve the lives of all affected by autism. ASA 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
As autism has become one of the fastest-growing childhood diseases in the world, ASA discovered in 2007 that its website was receiving massive amounts of traffic – and losing the majority of that traffic before visitors accessed even a single page. ASA’s Director of Marketing, who is also a parent of a child with autism, made a personal goal: She wanted Autism-society.org to become the go-to resource for parents with autism, professionals working with patients on the autism spectrum, and adults with autism themselves. She began with a question – “when I need help, where do I Google at 2 a.m.?” – and asked Convio to create a user experience that would always make Autism-society.org the answer to the question.

How We Solved It
Our charge was to develop a new Autism-society.org that would not only be optimized for search engine success, but would engage and convert visitors into lasting constituents and advocates, providing a value-added interaction with each subsequent visit to the website. Through targeted interviews, focused grouping, and analysis, we uncovered the meaningful differences that would allow ASA to communicate with each of its key populations: parents and families seeking information and resources; doctors and other healthcare professionals seeking the latest research and treatment options; teachers seeking to connect with other professionals and learn new classroom techniques; and even affected adults with autism looking to build relationships and find self-care opportunities (a population that ASA had always struggled to serve). This research fueled the development of a comprehensive new user experience for Autism-society.org, including information and visual design, to offer population-specific pathways that would allow each group to access focused information to meet its unique needs, as well as serving the general information-seeking public.

The Outcome
Since the new Autism-society.org launched on Convio in early 2008, ASA has seen incredible results. In addition to greatly expanding its online content, services, and engagement opportunities, Autism-society.org has attracted tens of thousands of additional new visitors each month and rolled out a number of successful online interactive programs for each of its key audience groups, including the Bounce for Autism fundraising event. And in answer to that question by parents and professionals – “where do I Google at 2 a.m. when I need information?” – more often than not it’s now ASA’s comprehensive online offering, Autism-society.org

Convio products used: Web Content Management