The Learning Link

Re-organizing the massive course catalog at Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz makes tremendous investments in the ongoing training and support of their employees. However, their current site for distributing training content outgrew their efforts. Due to sheer volume and diversity, it was no longer able to support all of the valuable content that was being produced each year.

I aimed to re-design the course catalog with the following goals:

  • Re-organize the information to support extensibility
  • Design a system so that the site could be integrated within M-B’s existing CMS

I pitched in on creating the templates in HTML/CSS and worked very closely with developers to ensure that we were tracking every step of the way.

Client

Mercedes-Benz, USA

Project roles

Information architecture, web design, HTML/CSS

Project output

Content-managed desktop site

Untangling the content

The original site map became too unwieldy and extended across several pages. Taking a cue from the design gurus at Big Spaceship, I reworked the site map so that the information could be presented in a more manageable way.

During the audit process, I found redundancies and consolidated information even further. The re-worked site map was a huge confidence booster — it helped everyone take a huge leap in understanding the content we were dealing with, without getting overwhelmed.

MBUSA Learning Link Site Map
Final site map whittled down from the initial multi-page document.

The product landing page showcased all current model year vehicles, shifting to a more visual style of navigating.

MBUSA Learning Link Screen

One of the challenges was to find consistency in the shape of the content so areas of the site could be templatized.

MBUSA Learning Link Screen