The old MIF site did not capture the excitement of the fund. It's bland presentation was exacerbated by poor branding, a dull color scheme, and its complete poverty of graphics and imagery combined with the fact that its text was not formatted for the web. Serious navigation and usability problems troubled the site mainly because its information architecture was not constructed to accomodate the company's ever expanding information.

By designing a new more polished MIF logo, spanning the fund's name across the top, and adding a fitting slogan the site's branding was vastly improved. The new color scheme and slick graphical layout was exciting yet still very professional and corporate. After much research the site's completely new information structure amended the previous navigation and usability issues.

Designed to make the database coding easier, the old MIF Project Search failed to consider the user. The confusing search filter was exposed with the lengthy, ambiquous instructions that it necessitated.

Placing the user at the center JuShi was able to construct a more task centered Project Search. Instituting an Advanced Search ensured that the MIF's Project Search would accomodate a greater range of user types. The proof of our success lay in the fact that no instructions were required.

Previous 2nd level MIF pages had a very confusing navigation which did not properly indicate to users what section they were on in the site's information architecture. Especially text heavy with poor alignment, each 2nd level page was undifferentiable.

Utilizing different bright and lively imagery behind the 2nd level banners added a much needed spark to this site. Rollovers on the banner improved the interactivity of this once bare site. Text readability was improved with properly aligned and spaced text as well as attractive headings and callouts.

Complicating navigation and usability on this site in its 3rd and subsequent levels was the lack of a proper navigation system. Further damaging the usability on these he lengthy 3rd level pages on the old MIF site was the unneccessary user scrolling.

By instituting a simple breadcrumb, we were able to provide users with an activity trail which improved both usability and navigation by letting users know where they were on the site and where they had been. User scrolling was reduced with proper anchors that enabled people to jump to the information they wanted quickly. A website is truly user friendly when it sports effective navigation in the deepest levels of the site.