Case Study
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GO-Live Date
September 3, 2024
Trusted Web Experts
Charlie Stanley
Web Solutions Architect
Caleigh Pickard
Project Manager
Nikki Vanderkooi
Content Strategy & Quality Assurance
Imelda Sotiri
Design Strategy
Stacey Horton
Layout Design
Heather Clark
Content Integration
Mehran Aziz
Web Developer
Katie Morman
Content Visualization
Deanna Frimann
Resource Allocation
Leanna Thesken
Case Study & Marketing
Overview
Meet A&N Electric Cooperative
A&N Electric Cooperative (ANEC) has been a trusted provider of electric service to Virginia’s Eastern Shore and Smith Island, Maryland, since 1940. Guided by its mission to enhance life on the Shore through member-driven services and its vision to exceed expectations as a trusted community resource, ANEC is deeply rooted in values of integrity, commitment, adaptability, respect, and excellence. To emphasize their value of adaptability, ANEC partnered with Powerful to redesign their website, aiming to create an inviting, progressive, engaging, and informative online experience. ANEC’s goals included increasing the use of online tools to reduce phone calls and emails, creating greater visitor engagement, and ensuring a visitor-friendly, intuitive design.
Achieving Intuitive & Engaging Design
To meet ANEC’s needs for an intuitive design and improved visitor engagement, Powerful integrated the Deschutes task-oriented blueprint, a strategic layout that emphasizes ease of use and clarity. This blueprint introduces prominent call-to-action buttons in the top hero section of the homepage, providing direct access to essential services and information such as starting services, reporting outages, accessing safety resources, using SmartHub, exploring payment options, and learning about the youth tour.
This design reflects ANEC’s understanding of their members’ needs by anticipating the most common reasons for visiting the website. By placing these top tasks front and center, ANEC’s new website encourages visitors to interact with essential services directly, reducing the need for phone calls or emails and promoting self-service. Members can now quickly find the information they need, leading to a more engaging and efficient website interaction.
Enhancing Cooperative Engagement Through Accessibility
As a cooperative, ANEC values integrity and commitment. To enhance these values, Powerful helped make the cooperative’s board of directors more accessible through the Staff Directory app. This app creates a dedicated space on the website where each board member is featured with a photo, contact information, and an internal page providing a personal bio.
This approach goes beyond listing names and titles; it gives a face and story to each leader, creating a deeper connection between the board and the community. By making board members more approachable, ANEC encourages open communication. This strengthens ANEC’s values of integrity and commitment. Members can easily learn about their representatives, feel more connected to the decision-making process, and reach out with their concerns or questions, which is essential in building trust and engagement.
Challenges
A&N Electric Cooperative (ANEC) set out to create a website that would truly reflect its mission of enhancing life on the Shore through member-driven services. The challenge was to design a site that felt both inviting and engaging, capturing ANEC’s commitment to being a trusted community resource while ensuring the site was easy to navigate and accessible for all members. Balancing the need for a modern look with a design that felt familiar and resonated with the local community required a thoughtful and strategic approach.Solutions
To address ANEC's goals, Powerful and ANEC worked closely to develop a design that would resonate with the cooperative’s members. The collaborative process focused on refining ANEC’s branding to create a cohesive and inviting online presence. This involved selecting a color scheme that reflected the cooperative’s values and integrating photos that highlighted the local community, ensuring the website felt both familiar and engaging. The design aimed to balance modern aesthetics with a sense of community, making the site an inviting platform for all members.Results
The outcome of this collaborative effort is a website that successfully mirrors ANEC’s mission and values. The cohesive branding and community-focused visuals have helped create a welcoming atmosphere that feels authentic to the community. Members can easily connect with the content, finding the website both engaging and intuitive to navigate. The updated design strengthens ANEC’s role as a trusted community resource. By incorporating familiar imagery and consistent branding elements throughout the site, the design reinforces a sense of local pride and belonging. This sense of familiarity encourages members to explore the site more freely, engaging with the diverse range of services and information available. The new design also supports ANEC’s objective of increasing the use of online tools, as members are more likely to use self-service features when they feel comfortable navigating the site.Mobile gallery
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Quotes
Team Comments
Our partnership with A&N Electric Cooperative was all about creating a website that truly reflected their commitment to the community. We wanted to build a site that felt welcoming and easy to use, while also highlighting the unique character of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. It was a collaborative effort, and we’re proud of the result—a platform that serves both the cooperative and its members effectively.
Project Manager
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