Started by doctors who saw a need for innovative medical imaging, Radsource has been a nationwide leader in MRI interpretation since 2001. The company provides both imaging services and software to imaging centers and doctors across the United States. Radsource has earned a reputation as one of the most trusted names in medical imaging.
Melanie Meadows is the Senior Director of Marketing Communications at Radsource and a department of one. Her focus is on marketing strategy and content development. She did not have the bandwidth or expertise to focus on Radsource’s two websites. And they were both on the fast track to becoming obsolete. She needed help pronto. So, Berry Interesting joined the team to support her with web development services, including updates and refinements.
Managing multiple business websites as a marketing department of one
Berry Interesting was tapped to assist Melanie in achieving three very important objectives. They were:
- Remove the burden of maintaining and updating two websites from a very small marketing team;
- Rescue a critical internal resource website from becoming obsolete and unusable;
- Rebuild the external website using the same theme as the internal website, updating the PHP version so it also does not become obsolete and unusable, and improving some critical functionality on the site.
NBD, right? Want to know how we did it? Read on!
Rescuing a crucial internal resource and moving it to WordPress
The most urgent website was the wiki website. Built in the early 2000s, this internal website has served as the knowledge base for the company and the clients it serves. It is a repository for all the documentation and resources needed to use Radsource’s imaging products and services. The wiki site was built on open-source software that had been abandoned by the inventors. There was no longer any maintenance or updating available for the code, and Radsource’s IT department had been self-hosting it for years. What’s more, the wiki was not accessible via mobile and in all types of browsers. It was also very challenging to use, resulting in time-consuming and needless help desk calls to both the client support team and to Melanie. The site was certainly a pain to use, and to make matters more urgent, Melanie was concerned that the site would fall apart (as unmaintained websites tend to do) any day.
We recommended that Radsource rebuild the wiki site on a WordPress platform, partially because the company’s public-facing site is on WordPress, and partially because WordPress is a great solution for maintaining a knowledgebase for users that aren’t company employees. WordPress’s core software is maintained and updated regularly. It can also be templated to make content changes simple. In addition, we recommended using the Divi theme, the same theme we’re using to rebuild their public-facing website. That way, the user experience on both the backend and frontend for both sites is simple, consistent, and brand-right.
During the rebuild, we used Gravity Forms and Advanced Custom Fields Pro to create three custom page types that are gated so that only users can see them. These pages are similar to a whiteboard in which Radsource can communicate directly with one client at a time to share highly personalized information. It is also now possible to update universal information and send it out to all, or just some, users simultaneously, depending on the variables needed. This editing function was made simpler so that more internal team members could help with updates in the future. Previously, each customer’s information pages needed to be updated individually by someone trained to use the backend of the wiki.
Exporting data from the wiki was also an issue. The marketing team had to manually create and print a data document for each user. Using the E2PDF plugin, we implemented an export function that creates and prints a PDF of a webpage automatically for the end user. When complete, the Berry Interesting team created tutorial videos to help new users navigate the site as well as serve as a reference for Radsource employees when they need a refresher on how to update the site. As a part of Radsource’s support agreement, these videos are updated as needed, whenever a change is made to the site’s user interface.
This new functionality enhanced UX and customer service immediately. The project took about 12 weeks to complete because the Radsource team did the content migration as a training exercise. This decision paid off, because Radsource’s Director of Client Services, Isabella Perez, is now very comfortable with the WordPress platform and has no trouble updating content and helping Radsource clients learn to use it.
The original internal wiki interface
The new internal wiki interface
New internal resource page accessible to all logged in site users
New internal resource page accessible to all logged in site users
Click on the thumbnails above to view a “before” shot of the internal wiki, followed by “after” shots of the newly redesigned site. Not only did we improve the navigation with accordion-style parent and child menu items, but the overall UX of the site was improved simply by implementing a solution accessible across devices of all sizes.
Redesigning an existing WordPress site to maintain functionality and create internal consistency
Once the wiki site was rescued, rebuilt, and launched, the BIPi team turned to the external, public-facing Radsource website. The primary concern with this site is that crucial functionality that was custom-coded by a previous developer was coded using a software version that is now no longer being updated or supported. Recently, the Radsource web host announced it would no longer be allowing sites on its servers using this outdated software; Radsource is being forced to update its PHP version as soon as possible or risk losing that crucial functionality, putting the site, the marketing department, and the business as a whole in a very precarious position.
Specifically, the “MRI Web Clinic” portion of the site crashed during initial testing for updating PHP. This functionality is critical to Melanie’s overall marketing strategy. These case studies are posted monthly and include custom image display functionality essential to the user experience.
Building a better medical imaging display solution
This original image display functionality on the site was built using Advanced Custom Fields to display medical images in thumbnail galleries that open individual images in lightboxes. It wasn’t exactly what Radsource wanted, and, what’s more, they also needed to publish more complex images, but the previous development team was never able to build a tool that would allow Melanie to publish these images herself. The end result was a poor user experience for gallery images and an occasional intervention by the Radsource IT department to hand-code the more complex image viewers
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The original display of an image gallery in an MRI Web Clinic
One image from a gallery, displayed in a lightbox after a user clicks
The original display of an image with rotating/interactive capabilities
The image rotator tool, displayed in a lightbox after a user clicks
So, a new image viewer has become job number one. Our team is building a custom image viewer plug-in that is easier to configure and publish images and easier to use for a site visitor to interact with. There will be a 3D view that rotates images on two axes and can be zoomed in with higher quality user experience. In galleries, we’re retaining the thumbnail view, but each image will include captions with more data and information, and viewers will be able to advance to the next image instead of having to click out of it. Best of all, there will be a simpler backend publishing workflow that does not require multiple departments to publish!
Working with an SEO Partner to Rebuild a WordPress site
While we’ve been head-down developing the new image management tool, our friends at Pilot Solutions have been working hard on a strategy to maintain the hard-won SEO rank Radsource enjoys for their existing website. Melanie was concerned that changing the site structure would result in lost web traffic. Since we’ve previously worked with Pilot Solutions, we recommended that they become a part of the team.
Before Pilot, Melanie was working with a different SEO strategist that ghosted her, so she was understandably nervous about contracting out her SEO work again. However, at this point, she’s now been working with Pilot for about a year on ongoing SEO and AdWords tasks. The site has retained and even grown its search rank and traffic. With Pilot on board, Melanie and the BIPi team have zero qualms about the new site losing steam as we move forward.
Thanks to the stellar support from Pilot on site architecture and content, redesigning the rest of the site (aside from the custom image viewer) is proving to be very straightforward.
The new Radsource site should be launching this spring
The story still needs to be finished. The site rebuild is underway, but we are running down a clock with an unknown expiration. Any day now, the whole site may break because of host issues. We’ve been working since December 2022 to build the custom image viewer, and Pilot has been working on the architecture and wireframing since February. The goal is to hand Radsource a functional website that is easier to update and consistent with the interface of the internal wiki. We aim to have the new site launched in April 2023.
After that, we will continue to provide ongoing monthly support so that both websites offer an exceptional user experience without Melanie having to touch any code (unless she wants to).
A happy WordPress support client means lots of happy imaging clients!
It’s been gratifying working with Radsource. We’re proud that we were able to simplify both websites and the processes for updating them while enhancing their ability to provide excellent customer service to their own clients. The customer service expert at Radsource agrees.
“Berry Interesting helped us move our internal wiki site, which we’ve long used to support relationships and communication with our clients, from an old, outdated platform over to a WordPress site with a modern aesthetic and much better user experience. It’s reduced the amount of support calls from clients asking for help using the site, and it’s made it much easier to keep the information out there current. Plus, if I ever need help with the site’s content or functionality, BIPi is always there to make sure I have what I need.”
– Isabella Perez, Radsource Director of Client Services
And we will continue to be there for Radsource every day. They can rely on the BIPi team to handle any website weirdness that may come up now and in future. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this partnership!
Radsource.us currently uses a custom-built theme but is moving to Divi (to match the wiki) for the redesign, projected to launch in April of 2023. If you’re curious about how Berry Interesting Productions can help your team optimize your business websites, we’re always happy to help! Drop us a line or book a consultation directly with our fearless leader, D’nelle. You can also sign up to get emails from Berry Interesting, and we’ll keep you in the loop.