MEA Forensic

A website for experts in their field. Expertly engineered.

The firm

The engineers of MEA Forensic reconstruct accidents involving cars, helicopters, broken products, and slippery stairs—anything and everything. Often called upon as expert witnesses, these engineers work to provide legal and insurance professionals with science-based conclusions about what happened during an accident and why. Research is central to MEA’s mission, and their experts regularly conduct experiments in MythBuster-style laboratories

The challenge

MEA Forensic is composed of smart experts who routinely use state-of-the-art technology to push the boundaries of the science. But you might not have gotten that impression from their previous website, which was starting to show its age. The primary challenge was to showcase these engineers as the industry-leading experts and skilled researchers that they are. The work that MEA Forensic does is highly specialized. A secondary challenge was: how can we make it easy for lawyers and insurance professionals to understand what MEA does? Since fSquared Marketing works primarily with law firms, our team has a good understanding of what would work. Finally, MEA challenged our design team to increase the visibility of the firm’s research, insights, and client seminars.

The work


Website Design & Development

Scope & Pre-Production

A visitor’s experience with a website influences their impression of a firm. We wanted to fully understand what MEA Forensic is about, so our team took a tour of their Vancouver office, including their laboratory where they crash cars together, flip SUVs, and conduct other smashing experiments. It was clear that the new site should highlight that spirit of scientific inquiry and MEA’s passion for research. Through in-depth discovery sessions, we defined MEA’s business and marketing goals for the new site, their target audience, and their plans for the future. We drew up blueprints (Information Architecture and Interface Design Wireframes) that matched these goals.

Website Design & Planning

Every expert at MEA Forensic has their own unique area of specialization. Our goal was to highlight this, by making the engineers the stars of the new website experience. For this reason, you’ll find them featured prominently on the homepage and throughout the site. This way, users can easily determine who they should reach out to about a particular issue. Across the site, we made use of intelligent content mapping: automatically displaying relevant content, such as related insights and firm news. Our team designed for a seamless user experience on both desktop and mobile.

Custom Code & Site Build

Case Studies allow MEA to provide concrete examples of the types of problems they solve and their process for getting to the heart of a case. We made these a prominent component of the new site, with featured case studies displayed on the homepage, and a Case Study Library for visitors to explore. MEA has three offices; our team built a dynamic sorting tool to make it easy for users to find the expert in their area best suited to answer their questions. An Events Module highlights upcoming seminars and talks, again highlighting the experts involved.

Expert Bios

Not only did we design the look and feel of these pages and take the photos, but we also interviewed all of MEA’s staff and wrote the first draft of every bio. By integrating quotes from these interviews, we allowed the personality of each professional to shine through. We designed a UX that displays the accomplishments of each expert.

Custom Animation

Storytellers are often advised to “show, not tell.” To better illustrate MEA’s expertise, our interactive designers created five custom animations, one for each area of specialization. These animations are displayed both on expertise areas and on related expert bios; this creates a visual connection between experts and their area of focus. Each animation poses the sort of question that MEA Forensic routinely answers.

Photography

Our photographers without borders captured shots of MEA’s experts in both Canada and the US, maintaining a consistent, clear style across all three offices. These photos make liberal use of white space, putting the focus on the expert.

Team Filtering

MEA has three different offices in two different countries and five core areas of expertise. On their previous site, this lead to a confusing user-experience. We built a custom team filtering feature to make it easy for users to find the right expert for their case. Users can sort by name or by any combination of expertise, title, or location.

Case Studies

These provide a glimpse of MEA experts at work, using engineering analysis to find answers. We helped MEA to develop concepts and provided editorial services, ensuring that each Case Study was written in terms that non-specialists could understand. We edited images and designed the structure.

Value Added Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We ensured that any SEO value that the firm had accrued wouldn’t be lost in the transition to a new site. Our developers built the new site structure in line with best practices while our marketers optimized key pages for search engines.

Event Module

Too often firms hide their client events away on some obscure page. We built MEA an Events Module that puts these right on the homepage and in key areas across the site. Events are automatically tagged with date markers and display the experts involved. Events also display on expert bio pages: all part of fSquared Marketing’s intelligent content mapping strategy.

Project Management

fSquared Marketing has a well-deserved reputation for strong project management processes. We have experience managing the creation of strategic marketing programs, e-commerce platforms, and websites. Working in close partnership with our marketing contact at MEA, who continued to do their ‘day job’, we ensured the timely launch of an expertly engineered meaforensic.com.

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