Credit Union ONE

With over 20 locations and a strong community focus, Credit Union ONE is one of Michigan’s leading credit unions. Offering financial solutions that fit their membership’s needs, the credit union wanted a new site to deliver on this promise by giving users quick and easy access to helpful online content. As a member-centric financial institution, Credit Union ONE focused on enhanced usability with its redesign – activating its refreshed brand, assuring ADA conformance and offering seamless accessibility on all devices. To appeal to all its members, the reimagined website needed to give visitors multiple ways to access meaningful information. To achieve these objectives, Credit Union ONE partnered with ZAG Interactive on its site redesign.

Collaboration at the core

Determining all the business goals and marketing objectives for the new site, ZAG and Credit Union ONE initiated the project with a face-to-face discovery session. This essential brainstorming meeting between all key stakeholders and ZAG segued into onsite member interviews to ensure the needs of both the institution and members. With this invaluable input, ZAG’s digital strategists devised the website architecture, emphasizing easy-to-use navigation and multiple touchpoints to quickly reach popular pages. Following a hierarchal content strategy, ZAG’s copywriters edited and wrote product descriptions, service offerings and financial literacy content in the brand’s distinctive tone and voice.

Branding by design

Leveraging the initial strategy and approved site map, ZAG’s designers created wireframes to identify the key components of each major page template, providing a blueprint for the overall site design. From there, the design team worked with Credit Union ONE to create two homepage and internal page concepts, both leveraging the latest brand standards, as well as WCAG 2.0 level AA conformance standards. To help determine which design would best meet audience needs, ZAG performed usability testing. Once a design was chosen, ZAG’s designers extended the design to all design templates, including a new blog and landing page template, and then created mobile and tablet versions of the design against responsive design best practices.

Custom website content

ZAG’s copywriters helped bring the brand to life, positioning content in a relatable tone and offering helpful information for key life stages. Leveraging ZAG’s financial literacy content, CU One's educational resources as well as insightful security information, the content also supported SEO best practices to help attract the audiences looking for financial solutions in the credit union’s Michigan footprint.

Functionality that delivers

At the intersection of strategy, content and design, ZAG’s developers took over the build of the website in the Kentico CMS. Combining advanced functionality with simplified management, ZAG’s development team built the full website, including numerous custom widgets, third-party integrations, embedded tools, interactive forms and useful calculators. The site also features a live chat, rates management tool, custom blog, and more.

Providing customized user experience solutions

Credit Union ONE positions itself as a financial solutions provider for its diverse member base. To support that positioning, ZAG introduced quick links as part of the site navigation, so power users could easily get one-click access to commonly accessed content. The homepage also features a drop-down list of key financial needs, allowing visitors to make more informed financial decisions at key life stages. A true collaboration between ZAG and Credit Union ONE, the new site is on brand, well designed, fully functional and ready for business.