Our Work

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) came to Forum One having outgrown its existing site. Bursting at the seams, CSIS needed a better way to present, organize, and capture more than 40 programs and 9,000 publications. The previous site displayed programs alphabetically that only the small number of visitors already familiar with CSIS's structure understood. New users were expected to scroll through long obtuse lists to find the information they needed.

Forum One stepped in to significantly improve the site's information architecture. We migrated the site to the Drupal open-source content management system, opening up new features and flexibility. Users now have multiple ways to explore CSIS' work, including by region, topic/subtopic, expert, and program name. We created a rich content taxonomy to associate related topic programs and content nodes to one another, thereby allowing users to discover relevant subject matter before they even know to look for it. Forum One's solution made the site easier to navigate and scan by reducing needless text, increasing imagery and visual cues, and showcasing rich multimedia and dynamic content. The impact of the improved site became clear soon after launch. In just four short months, CSIS saw a 601 percent increase in video views, 440 percent increase in file downloads from iTunes University, 70 percent increase in page views, and 53 percent increase in visitors.