Polar Design is proud to announce the launch of chiamass.gov, the State of Massachusetts’ Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). This new healthcare website builds upon the previous website and aims to deliver the same quality healthcare information and data in a fresh, user-friendly way. The sleek, modern, horizontal design makes the site easy to navigate and presents a clear path for obtaining data on hospitals, insurance, performance and more.
The depth of information required for this site pushed Polar Design to innovate in new ways. Polar Design worked directly with CHIA to create an effective organization system for the vast amount of data and information available to users. CHIA needs to cater to multiple audiences that have unique needs – for example, legislators and policymakers need access to key information quickly, compared with researchers and people in academia who want access to delve deep into CHIA’s data offerings. Other audiences, such as healthcare providers and insurance companies, need information on particular subsets within the data. A classic website hierarchy would not be sufficient for this new site, so Polar Design and CHIA collaborated on a unique “stories” approach that provides for all of these needs.
Another hurdle Polar Design overcame through innovation was moving over 1,000 documents from the original website to the new SilverStripe CMS in a timely and cost-effective way. Polar Design used a combination of custom import scripts, scraping, and other methods to move the documents from the legacy website located at mass.gov.
Twitter integration keeps the site updated with real-time talk about CHIA, and the new color scheme and graphics appeal to a wide audience. Most importantly, the site is responsive, which means it is fully accessible across all resolutions and devices, which targets different audiences and improves site retention. Polar Design is very excited about this launch and looks forward to continuing work with great agencies like CHIA.
About Polar Design
Polar Design (www.polardesign.com) is a full-service interactive agency founded in 1999 to crystallize communications. Headquartered in the Boston metro area, Polar Designs’ team of local, national and international collaborators deliver best of breed software development, award winning graphic design, insightful digital marketing strategy and execution. Current and past clients include midsized and Fortune 500 companies, web and mobile startups, Taft-Hartley funds and government agencies. Polar Design prides itself in delivering tangible success for its clients by aligning our recommendations with their vision, and designing solutions to meet key performance objectives.
CHIA’s vision is to be the hub of information and analysis about the Massachusetts health care system. CHIA’s mission is to be the agency of record for Massachusetts health care information, to responsibly steward sensitive and confidential data, and to objectively report reliable and meaningful information about the quality, affordability, utilization, access, and outcomes of the Massachusetts health care system.