Let me introduce you to One Spirit Medical Missions (OSMM.) OSMM consists of several teams of medical professionals that travel to Haiti to provide medical care to people in rural communities. OSMM teams make several trips a year to several towns to run medical clinics and provide needed prescription medicines. It’s all about providing medical care for people that cannot afford it. But that’s not all! At OSMM, they help match interested Haitians with healthcare training. So, OSMM works to meet both current medical needs as well as prepare for the future of Haitian healthcare. This is especially important because there are not enough nurses and physicians currently in Haiti.So what is the scoop about the OSMM website? Well, OSMM needed a website because they did not have one! For OSMM, we wanted to be able to convey a great deal of information and provide resources to many different audiences. Here are some examples of the audiences that we needed to reach with this website:

1.    People who want to go on the medical trips and serve as a team member (Medical Page)
2. Individual sponsors who are interested in supporting OSMM (Give Page)
3. Corporate and non-profit groups looking to partner with OSMM (Connect Page)
4. People interested in OSMM’s outreach (Communities We Serve)
5. Normal surfers checking out the site

 That is a pretty diverse audience there. One of the things that we always do for Covenant Design websites is make sure that the primary navigation is clear and easy to use. (I don’t want to have to think about where to click on a website.) The navigation and layout should be intuitive for the user. That intuitive approach to content access is important for all websites. But this was a particularly crucial factor for the OSMM website because we had lots of content to organize and make available to many different audiences.

In addition to a simple primary navigation at the top of the website, we utilized the four blocks on the top of the home page to target specific audiences. Those blocks each link to a specific page that is particularly relevant to one of those main audiences. In this case, a little bit of redundancy really works well because the OSMM site highlights the super important bits for their different audiences right of the bat. These kind of organizational elements are often overlooked and taken for granted in a good website. However, if they are missing, it’s noticed.

Now, the OSMM site is not just plain informational. We needed some features to round out the site and add some functionality. I want to touch on two things here. Firstly, I wanted to talk about the blog. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the idea of what a blog should be. Basically, it is just a journal. And if something is relevant to you, it’s relevant to the blog. For OSMM the blog is extremely useful for keeping track of events and conveying news about goings on in Haiti. One great example that OSMM just featured is that the political road blocks in regards to the Cholera Vaccination project in Haiti have been overcome and the vaccine is now being administered. News like this, relevant to Haiti and the medical field, is perfect to feature on the blog. However, the blog will also be a great place for OSMM to relay stories of their trips and create a running history of their organization.

Secondly, I wanted to talk about the gallery. The OSMM gallery brings the work of the medical teams to life. Months of planning and organization pay off when you see the teams in action hosting medical clinics. It is amazing just how much a picture can communicate especially for a non-profit organization like OSMM. Not only does the gallery provide a glimpse into Haitian life and the work of the OSMM teams, it serves as a testament to the relationships that OSMM has built with the people that they serve and work with. The friendship and long term partnership of OSMM with Haiti could not be communicated in any better way.