Isadora Agency Transforms NCCER Brand and Website

Isadora Agency recently worked with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). An educational nonprofit dedicated to craft professionals’ career development; NCCER needed to transform their brand. We achieved that goal by creating a powerful website design and visual identity to match.

NCCER is an educational 501(c)(3) organization committed to helping craft professionals thrive in their careers. Their website is a B2B and B2C hub that connects learners and companies to continued work skill training. Since 1996, NCCER has been known for offering accreditation and certification. They also offer training and assessments in over 40 crafts and construction disciplines.

They needed a rebrand and new website design that would give their brand a more authoritative and unique presence. Addressing both of those items would accentuate the organization’s reputation and show new craft professionals and audiences that the construction industry is multifaceted, lucrative, and an excellent career path.

Isadora Agency provided NCCER with this rebrand and a complete website design overhaul, including reimagined information architecture, backend, and design. We also built a custom WordPress implementation that gave NCCER a polished online presence. Using practices typically reserved for higher education and B2B brands, we created a sleek, user-friendly website that presents information clearly, strategically, and beautifully.

Website and Brand Elements

NCCER’s website, like NCCER’s brand, did not convey the organization’s impressive range of resources. The content hierarchy was overwhelming and difficult to digest, and the sitemap and navigation had long outgrown the content. Pages addressing the organization’s courses and accreditation were obscured, resulting in over 200 daily customer service calls.

We solved these problems by primarily focusing on information architecture. Getting a stronger understanding of user needs meant integrating a responsive layout, comprehensive CMS, and flex pages that organized content clearly. An exhaustive content audit and competitive search analysis allowed us to create an SEO keyword and content strategy that would effectively funnel more traffic to the website. This resulted in a website with more intuitive flow—one that keeps users on-page, moves them fluidly to course-specific subpages, and gives a lasting impression of NCCER’s mission.

We also developed new visual brand elements. A close collaboration on logo design ideas led NCCER to choose the stacked E, inspired by the look and feel of bricks and construction materials as well as the modular nature of their curricula. Their new color palette was similarly inspired by construction elements, with construction orange as the primary color, and blue and gray as additional, contrasting brand colors. Both elements created a bright, standout feel, highlighting the richness and relevance of NCCER’s resources.

Brand and Strategy

NCCER is a well-known and established organization, but needed a brand presence that reflected their considerable influence. They struggled to communicate their mission and services, connect diverse audience groups with their specific needs, and reach the younger generation of craft professionals. The goals of NCCER’s rebrand were to unify the brand’s messaging, increase brand awareness, attract new customers, and position the organization for long-term success as an educational nonprofit.

Michele DiRocco, Senior Marketing Manager at NCCER, said:

The team at Isadora Agency is phenomenal to work with. They listened to our needs, addressed any questions quickly yet thoroughly, and made great recommendations throughout each phase of the project. They are incredibly transparent, responsive, and organized, which kept all deliverables of the project on-time and within budget. We felt the success of our project was a top priority for the team at Isadora Agency, which was woven throughout every deliverable.

Accomplishing these goals started with updating the mission, vision, and brand story. Redefining NCCER’s mission meant weaving in their goal of building a safe, productive and sustainable workforce of craft professionals. NCCER’s updated vision included being recognized as “the training, assessment, certification and career development standard for construction and maintenance craft professionals.”

By establishing how NCCER bridges the gap between industry knowledge and education, we positioned their brand as accomplished and uniquely forward-thinking. Telling this story allowed the brand strategist to create powerful visual elements and branded content via their redesigned website that would connect with NCCER’s early-career and established audiences.

Mobile

Even if your users prefer desktop access, a mobile-friendly site is invaluable. Optimizing for mobile leads to easier access for anyone using Google to find your company, thanks to mobile-first indexing. It also means better shareability. We learned that 65% of NCCER’s users access the website via desktop, versus 33% through mobile—a split that largely reflects different user age groups, with more mature audiences preferring desktop. We also understood it was likely that many craft professionals, especially younger audiences, would share programs and craft pages with others using a mobile device.

We carried this philosophy over to developing NCCER’s mobile site. Their website design was not optimized for mobile use before our redesign. Now, it’s easy to find and share—which helps strengthen their brand, as it further emphasizes their values of reliability, guidance, and improvement.

Homepage

Updating NCCER’s homepage addressed one of the website’s key issues: navigability. Course and accreditation offerings were difficult to find, and the search tool did not properly bring up results. To solve this, we split the website’s pages into distinct categories, applied a Mega Menu design, and added an improved Smart Search function.

We also integrated new design elements that would draw users to NCCER’s excellent content. Now, users can focus on educational information, connections with other craft professionals, and content that inspires them to keep building their careers.

History

Sharing NCCER’s history as an organization helps amplify the brand’s status as an authority in the industry. Making this a unique point on the website meant creating a timeline that animates as the user scrolls. In addition, the section navigation brings the user to a selected decade so they can learn more quickly and efficiently.

Craft

Updating NCCER’s Craft Catalog made it more of a hub for users looking to browse and explore available courses, understand the steps toward accreditation, and access resources for their fields. This page is the point of entry for 68 different craft pages, as well as quick links to resources and course curriculum details. Knowing how important this portal is to NCCER’s brand, we revitalized its navigation, so users can find the information they need quickly and easily.

Technology

Our Agency used best practices for WordPress development, and set up the website backend with plugins addressing accessibility level A, SEO, performance, and maintainability.

We also added an API integration to optimize and inform the pages Find A Center & Network Directory. This integration fetches and reads a specific XML file that draws information from NCCER partner organizations, allowing users to find those organizations more easily and consistently.

Services Provided

• Information Architecture
• User Journey
• UX / UI
• Web Design
• Web Product
• Web Development
• User Experience Design
• Brand Strategy
• Brand Identity

About Isadora Agency

Isadora Agency is a web design company and leader in enterprise digital transformations via branding, UX Design, Product Design, eCommerce, and ongoing web development & management.