Michigan Schools & Government Credit Union (MSGCU) has been helping its many members reach their financial goals for more than 60 years. Since being founded in 1954, education and public service have been an imperative part of its culture. With these values in mind, this local Michigan institution decided it was time to redesign its website to better educate and serve members. ZAG Interactive was chosen to create a more modern website experience that honored the credit union’s roots.
Researching the opportunities
The project began with a digital audit that involved evaluating the existing MSGCU website to identify opportunities for improvement. It was important for MSGCU to understand the current marketplace, so ZAG also completed a detailed competitive review, evaluating the positives and negatives of competitor sites, as well as providing benchmarks for best practices in the industry. The website redesign portion of the project then began with a collaborative discovery session that reviewed the strategic findings and reiterated project goals.
Strengthening the strategy
Based on observations and MSGCU’s objectives to enhance the overall site usability and support member needs, ZAG devised a new site strategy, including a streamlined site architecture. The simple, action-oriented navigation approach makes it easy for visitors to find the solutions they are looking for, make informed financial decisions and improves the overall user experience while supporting business goals. The site design strategy was first brought to life by creating high fidelity wireframes, which outlined essential page elements – from resources to promotions – and would serve as the foundation for the site design.
Refreshing the design
Using the wireframing strategy, ZAG created a modern yet warm responsive website design that would complement the site strategy, provide a seamless experience across different devices, and reflect MSGCU’s unique brand. The use of color, candid imagery, iconography and other visual elements highlights important content and guides the user through the consumer journey, while showcasing MSGCU’s brand personality and attributes. MSGCU’s redesigned website is simple and clean, but effectively portrays the credit union as a member-focused, friendly, relatable, full-service institution committed to the community’s financial well-being.
Sending the right message
Supporting MSGCU’s image, the website copy was overhauled to make sure that all information was accurate, clear, and helpful. Content was carefully crafted to create a more personal touch that was consistent with the in-branch banking experience. Keywords and phrases were also naturally infused into the new website content to support the overall site SEO strategy, as part of ZAG’s SEO consulting services.
Building a foundation
To guide the website build, which was performed by MSGCU’s existing vendor, ZAG’s development team created a prototype that illustrated how the strategy, design and functionality would work together. The prototype provided the code for core page templates of the website, ensuring the final website would perform as intended and meet MSGCU’s goals.
The result is a strategic website that exemplifies MSGCU’s long-standing dedication to education and service, and will continue to grow with the brand.