Our Work

Resources for the Future (RFF) is a nonpartisan organization that conducts independent research on issues related to climate change, energy, natural resources, transportation, public health, and other topics. RFF asked Forum One to help re-conceive its aging site at www.rff.org to provide better content and services to its most important audiences.

Forum One began the project with a baseline analysis that showed that the site performed poorly against its peers. We found that the existing site was chiefly focused on publishing RFF's dense work products, many of which were the result of multi-year projects over its 50-year history. The site provided long reports whose connections to current policy discussions were not always clear. RFF wished to improve its relevancy and increase the impact of its diverse work on policy makers, corporations, the media, and peer researchers. We helped RFF analyze current technology trends and evaluate how applicable or useful they would be to helping the organization achieve its objectives.

Working closely with RFF staff, we developed a detailed, prioritized list of content and services that engaged target audiences and supported the organization's goals. New services included detailed profiles for RFF researchers that showcased their work, improved functionality for online transactions (e.g., event registration), an editorial mix that served up shorter and newer content as an appetizer for longer papers, and a topic-focused information architecture that matched user tasks. An audience survey, stakeholder interviews, and usability testing validated these additions and confirmed that RFF's audiences' needs were being met. The resulting site vastly improves the relevancy of RFF's important work and provides a more appealing and helpful mix of services to keep audiences coming back to the site.