Nanotechnology - NNCI

The Challenge

The National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), established in 2015, is one of the pillars of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The user facilities within NNCI, which support both academic research and process development, are intended to alleviate the lack of resources including equipment and expertise. The primary challenge of the web site was making the information easy to navigate for a broad range of users including prospective researchers, current researchers, staff university members and the general public. Creating a custom import with access to university user facilities and characterization tools involved strategic planning, implementation, and testing. It was crucial for the website to have a fully responsive design layout with a restricted equipment database.

The Goal

Cool Blue worked closely with NNCI stakeholders to determine functionality for the databases and customized search/filter functions for equipment and people (researchers and experts), assuring all required information is available and searchable. In terms of audience, marketing to non-traditional users and increasing overall percentage/number of external users (outside students, partners, & companies) were both significant goals in the development of the new site.

The Results

With an engaging interface and accessible database, the new NNCI site supports the two core components of the organization – education and outreach. Our delivery of the new site included an integrated Drupal content management system with a modern, user-friendly navigation and design across multiple devices.

Notable New Features:

• Customized searchable databases for NNCI Sites and Experts
• Private access enrollment for new NNCI users and work flow
• Custom US map for displaying facilities
• Communications and Support via online forms