Background 
As its name suggests, Beyond Type 1 was originally founded to offer education and advocacy to help people living with type 1 diabetes, an unpreventable and currently incurable autoimmune disease. It then grew to encompass type 2 diabetes. Making it easy for every audience to find the right information at the right time — and positioning Beyond Type 1 as a community-focused advocate open to discussing all topics — became primary goals of the site modernization.
In-Depth Discovery 
The starting point was Beyond Type 1’s massive 7,000-page site, rich in valuable information that was not always easy to find. There were actually multiple sites representing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, each in English and Spanish.
To begin the modernization, VSSL led a wide-ranging and in-depth discovery process based on research we had done and outlined the core goals of the site, the different audiences it would serve, the user experience, its information architecture and navigation structure, and the backend technical elements. Search engine and conversion rate optimization were major topics of discussion, as were a multi-language approach and how the site would evolve in the future.
Creating a Better User Experience 
VSSL made a number of recommendations to improve the user experience and make it easier for visitors to navigate to the content they need. One was to combine the four sites, Beyond Type 1 and 2, and the English and Spanish versions into one, with resources completely reorganized into a more logical, navigable arrangement. VSSL also recommended revising program names for clarity and adding labels that were more action-oriented.
VSSL also reorganized the navigation into clearly defined categories to align with the individual experiences of those living with diabetes. Thus, if someone was newly diagnosed with type 1 or type 2, or had been living with either one, or had a loved one who needed support, they could quickly and easily find what was relevant to them. Adding additional resource filters and a vastly improved search function would also help. To improve ongoing engagement, we also recommend making it easier — less information needed — to sign up for the Beyond Type 1 newsletter, the Drop.
Key Technical Recommendations 
Having a site that could quickly scale up as the organization grew domestically and internationally was a high priority, and VSSL recommended significant upgrades to the technical foundation to facilitate expansion.
One was to reduce the number of plug-ins that enabled site functionality from approximately 40 to fewer than 20 and use the WordPress engine, instead of more plug-ins, to handle redirects. To improve search results, we also suggested transitioning from invisible elements (hidden meta-data, i.e.) to tags. Specific widgets were recommended to improve accessibility for users with disabilities and to ensure regulatory compliance. The multi-language plug-in we recommended would automatically translate the site into 65 languages, more than resolving the English/Spanish language challenge.
To better measure and continually improve all site elements, it would also have to generate far more detailed analytics. Granular reporting would track individual user journeys and interactions, while aggregate reporting would offer a more high-level view of the site’s performance, such as overall traffic, bounce rates, conversations, geographic data, and more.
SEO Strategy To Drive Organic Traffic 
Few things improve the impact of a site than organically increasing the number of users it attracts and the time they spend engaging with its content. Optimizing the content on existing pages, improving page-load speeds to improve rankings, making technical updates, and fixing cannibalization issues (where duplicate pages compete with the new site or with each other) were necessary steps.
The site also prioritized mobile optimization, given that 65% of the site’s visitors were mobile users. Migrating landing pages to the new site would also help drive organic traffic. We strongly recommended seeking new and relevant content opportunities and creating more backlinks — a VSSL audit revealed more than 17,000 backlink possibilities!
What We Learned From User Testing 
Because the site was being redesigned to better meet the needs of its users, we deemed user testing essential. Testing took place approximately halfway through the project, during the design phase and before development, so changes in response to user feedback could be incorporated easily.
The testing found a 90-95% success rate for tasks we asked the test subjects to complete on the site, showing that we were moving in the right direction and validating our initial research and UX/UI choices. If there were any tasks that people struggled with, they were addressed prior to development. For example, the user testing told us we needed to make it easier for users to find prediabetes resources, so it was added to the navigation and the homepage.
The Design Strategy 
Nearly all the pages on the existing site looked the same, making it difficult to differentiate what was a resource, a story, a life-saving program, and so forth. Even the homepage was hard to follow, giving many people the impression Beyond Type 1 was a blog, not a highly impactful organization or trusted resource.
Our strategy was to elevate and modernize the site design as a whole and re-position Beyond Type 1 as the trusted diabetes resource they are. We created 14 new templates to encompass the new branding, replacing what had been a number of one-off designs that gave the site a disjointed appearance. The templates had greater differentiation based on the type of content and made it easier for Beyond Type 1 to add new pages at will and stay within brand guidelines.
Results 
By the project&#8217;s conclusion, the four websites had been combined into one, and the page count was reduced by nearly 10%. VSSL migrated more than 6,000 resource posts to the new site and either migrated or newly created 319 more. The 40 website plug-ins were reduced to 18, and the 1,447 tags plus 872 invisible elements are now 587 tags and zero invisibles, drastically improving the site speed.
Faster page-load speeds then significantly improved metrics for accessibility, best practices, SEO, and overall site performance on both mobile and desktop, more than doubling and tripling their respective performance scores. The impact of the work was recognized on a global stage when the website was named a Webby Honoree in the 29th Annual Webby Awards in the Charitable Organizations / Non-Profit Websites and Mobile Sites category.

<h4>Overview</h4>
Beyond Type 1 is a nonprofit organization whose primary goal is to change what it means to live with diabetes. It provides information and programs for people living with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, their loved ones, and caregivers. When Beyond Type 1 decided to refresh and modernize its visual brand, it also took a holistic approach to updating its website. To make it easy for users to find what they need, the site’s entire visual presentation, technical structure, and backend organization would have to change.

A Holistic Approach to Modernizing the Beyond Type 1 Website

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A Holistic Approach to Modernizing the Beyond Type 1 Website

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