Small Business Administration, National Women’s Business Council

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Challenge:

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) is a bipartisan public policy council dedicated to promoting initiatives, policies and programs to support women's business enterprises in the public and private sector. Since its womenbiz.gov Web site hadn’t been updated in more than five years, NWBC decided it was time for an overhaul. Both the site’s appearance and content were outdated, and it contained nearly 100 broken links. NWBC needed a firm that thoroughly understood the process of government contracting — and that could design a bold, content-rich, user-friendly site.

Solution:

Highly experienced in contracting with the federal government, LFS was a natural choice for creating the new womenbiz.gov Web site. Prior to the site’s launch, LFS conducted focus groups and online surveys to learn from the business community what the site needed to be a better resource. LFS then incorporated that feedback — as well as the findings from a Web site audit — into a new site plan. We also developed a site map to better organize the site’s structure and to minimize click-throughs. Lastly, we developed design concepts showing women being empowered, with a user-friendly format of cascading style sheets.

Result:

The end result was a cutting-edge, easy-to-navigate Web site that steered away from the look of a typical government agency. Most importantly, the site offers a plethora of information and resources — and a clear, concise direction for women-owned businesses to follow when contracting with the federal government. Additionally, LFS designed womenbiz.gov in a way that it could be easily maintained and updated by the Small Business Administration.

Services Provided:

• Web site
• Programming