Aug 21 2008
GoArmy Redesign
My experience working on GoArmy.com while at Leo Burnett was fantastic. I was at Leo when we completely changed the Army’s branding. We even evolved the Army from “Be All You Can Be” to “An Army of One.” That was a big shift in positioning and communication for the Army. I’ve watched the site from afar and love the direction it’s been going. This morning I noticed several new features that really impressed me.
GoArmy.com Home Page
- The site opens with a video intro that isn’t a splash page. The main feature area serves up an entire library of videos, but does so in an easy to digest manner. The videos can even be downloaded for use on your iPod. Very nice.
- I would have liked to have seen predictive search. However, the use of a Tag Cloud in the lower left of the page, to surface the most popular items visitors are searching for is a solid alternative. I’m shocked actually at how progressive and open they are being with the data.
- Right next to the Tag Cloud area is a module that serves up the most recent posts from the discussion board. It’s a nice way to serve up what other people just like YOU are looking for. The only catch is you need to be a registered member to participate in the discussion. It’s a smart move the Army’s part.
- I love the use of the dual navigation. They opted to leverage the top nav for the main sections of the site and the right hand NAV for content that is community driven or personalized. I just wish the login call to action was more prominent.
Many of these ideas aren’t new. Several are ones we recommended to the Army in 2001. However, back then they weren’t ready or able to make the recommendations come to life. Today though, tt looks like they have their eye squarely focused on being progressive. Very cool!
