The ONE Network: Redesigned With You in Mind

Download PDF

With member feedback, the Academy has worked to improve the ONE Network in several important ways. Read about what we did and why—then try the new features firsthand.

Since its launch in 2007, the popularity of the Ophthalmic News & Education (ONE) Network has increased steadily from around 4,000 users to more than 30,000. This growth attests to the ONE Network’s success in fulfilling its mission to provide trusted clinical education to combat vision-threatening eye conditions. Furthermore, the ONE Network continually works to adapt to the needs of ophthalmologists. Not only are educational activities and clinical resources added daily, but new Web-based technologies have also been in corporated to improve the presentation of information and the way users can interact with it.

Redesign officially launches this month. Despite many incremental improvements over the last six years, major changes were necessary to enhance the user experience. The redesigned site delivers more effective search functionality and navigation, improved mobile compatibility, and a host of other features.

The main purpose of the ONE Network’s redesign is twofold: to make members use the most and find most valuable. “This will place the ONE Network on steroids,” said deputy editor-in-chief Andrew P. Doan, MD, PhD, “bringing the functionality and user interface to the forefront of the digital age.” Before any such endeavor could begin, however, the Academy had to pinpoint specific areas for improvement by considering recommendations from its members.

Improvements are evidence based. Since 2007, the Academy has conducted ongoing user testing and collected input on how members can search and locate the content they need more quickly and efficiently. This user feedback—combined with wish lists from the site’s editors and contributors, as well as internal performance metrics—helped identify areas for improvement, specifically, more effective search tools and better compatibility with mobile phones and tablets.

With this input, the Academy worked with its usability team and its website vendor to reorganize and redesign the site. The finalized concepts were presented to selected members for live user testing. The results of that process culminate this month with the formal launch of the redesigned site.

Features

Changes to the site were made in several key areas.

More effective navigation and search. The most significant changes accompanying the ONE Network redesign are the improved navigation and search functions. In previous iterations of the site, members expressed concern with the difficulty of finding desired content and felt that locating information required excessive digging.

• Intuitive navigation. The Academy addressed member feedback by redesigning the website with an eye toward more intuitive navigation. This primarily involved rearranging content based on popularity. For example, “Journals”—a section that user testing identified as the site’s most popular—is in a more prominent position at the top of the home page and within the first tab. To make it easier to quickly browse for information, the new design displays more content on a single page. Many of the main pages also have filters so that users can easily drill down to the desired content. For example, on the Education page, a search can be narrowed by subspecialty, CME, or content type: Case, Course, Diagnose This, Ethics Course, or Learning Plan.
• Filter your search results. The new search tool features similar filters designed to improve the accuracy of results. Now users can narrow results by subspecialty, date, CME, or content type. Results also feature links to outside searches via Google Scholar and PubMed.

Enhanced mobile compatibility. The upgraded ONE Network offers greater compatibility with mobile devices.

• More iOS friendly. Previous iterations of the site were based on Flash technology, and this prevented iOS-based devices such as Apple iPads (and iPhones) from rendering some of the content. Because of the ubiquity of iOS mobile operating systems among its members, the Academy decided to forgo Flash and embrace HTML5. In addition, a number of the Academy Grand Rounds cases have been upgraded so that they can now be viewed offline on iPads via a free iOS app.
• Mobile optimized. The new site features responsive Web design. This means that the page display and elements will automatically resize and/ or simplify to conform to your device’s screen dimensions. As a result of these changes, all Academy-produced content on the ONE Network will be accessible on nearly all devices, regardless of their operating system.

More personalization options. Multiple tools are available to tailor content to specific preferences. For example, once logged in, users can easily access the “My ONE Network” widget from any page, where they can find their CME transcript; create a to-do list, which bookmarks content for later; review recent browsing history; access online products that they purchased; and track performance on customizable self-assessment exams. In addition, My ONE Network suggests other educational activities based on the member’s most recent self-assessment performance. It will also provide access to the Academy membership directory, including the user’s member profile and financial disclosures. 

Bigger role for social media. Social media features have been enhanced. Specifically, in addition to the standard commenting and recommendation tools, the updated ONE Network includes page view counters and buttons that allow users to share content via e-mail and social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.

One of the more interactive enhancements involves Diagnose This quizzes and other self-assessment exams: Users now can answer test questions, receive their performance results, and immediately see how they fared relative to their peers. They can also leave comments and read the feedback that others have posted about the topic.

Image collection is now free. Previously on the ONE Network, the Academy offered its image collection as a subscription-based product. With the redesign, however, this resource will launch as a free member benefit, providing users with immediate access to the Academy’s library of more than 3,000 high-resolution, downloadable images, which can be uploaded and shared with others. Academy members may use these images to enhance presentations and to illustrate anatomical concepts, conditions, and diseases for their patients.

Laser education. The Academy is adding tertiary education centers to the site; these provide in-depth education on selected areas of clinical interest. Coming later this month, the ONE Network will feature the Munnerlyn Laser Surgery Education Center, which covers basic laser physics and laser-tissue interactions, as well as retinal, glaucoma, cataract, and refractive laser applications. The center will contain educational text and multimedia resources, including medical animations, surgical videos, and interactive simulations. It will also include a video collection of historic interviews with ophthalmic and scientific experts concerning the development of lasers in ophthalmology. This center, and future centers, will be updated as new knowledge and innovations are introduced.

More on the Way

Look for more high-quality content in the coming months, including a more robust and easier-to-navigate collection of videos and podcasts. “Currently, our members have to peruse a voluminous amount of surgical videos on a number of other sites to get exactly what they are looking for,” said ONE Network editor-in-chief Robert F. Melendez, MD, MBA. “But now with the ONE Network’s growing Master Class Video collection, for example, the Academy is beginning to take the labor out of the process.” 

The heart of the redesign: simplicity. The Academy is aware that ophthalmologists have many options, such as Google and YouTube, where they can find clinical education materials, practice pearls, high-quality images, or the latest news about the profession. Where the ONE Network continues to succeed, however, is in streamlining as well as constantly updating the process of information gathering. The redesign, said Dr. Doan, “is not a reinvention—it’s simply the next step toward establishing the ONE Network as the first-stop, one-stop knowledge base for the most accurate news and information created for and vetted by ophthalmologists.”