In 2011, Reingold worked with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to launch the Make the Connection campaign, with the MakeTheConnection.net website at the heart. The site provided scores of testimonial videos from real Veterans, in addition to valuable information about mental health issues and a resource locator to ultimately get the assistance a lot of Veterans need.
The site saw thousands of hits in its first couple months, and we immediately recognized potential to build on the campaign’s potential for 2.0. Moving forward, we determined ways to make the site more accessible to the features users would need. We simplified the calls to action across the site to focus a user’s navigation from watching video testimonials, to learning about the topics therein, to finally discovering nearby resources to get help: Listen, Learn, and Locate.
The site overall refocused on the watching of video testimonials, and discovering new and related videos. The home page added videos front and center. The top of the page received a JQuery rotator to emphasize Listen, Learn and Locate.
Video lightwindows got a makeover to better lay out video information, and encourage sharing and discovery.
The site-wide content filter was moved the very top of the page, to make it clearer that it affected content across the site. Share links to major social networks that were previously hidden were given a stronger presence on all pages.
The Video Gallery was redesigned to make filtering easier and more intuitive. The page was optimized to take advantage of larger browser sizes, with videos filling all available space.
Make the Connection on Facebook
The Make the Connection Facebook page was launched in June 2012 to augment the website’s reach and allow for a constant connection to Veterans and their family and friends. I created a Welcome tab, in additional to several ancillary graphics as the campaign rolled on.
By the end of July 2012, the Make the Connection Facebook page reached a half a million likes. Here’s the graphic I created to accompanied the milestone.
