About AAN.com

AAN.com is the official website of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), an international professional association of more than 22,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals. The AAN seeks to become indispensable to our members. as well as being dedicated to providing the best possible care for patients with neurologic disorders.

The website also includes content produced by AAN Enterprises, Inc. (AEI), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Academy of Neurology Foundation (AAN Foundation).

The Academy's professional website is only one of the domains associated with the AAN:

• m.AAN.com, mobile AAN.com for members
• Neurology® journal
• Neurology Now®, patient magazine
• Neurology Today®, magazine for neurology professionals

Background

The Academy has been online with the domain name AAN.com since 1996. A significant redesign was launched in 2001, providing increased usability, consolidated content, and many new applications. The website received multiple enhancements to support the organization's evolving information and application needs over the next several years, while structure and handling of content remained virtually unchanged.

The navigation scheme of the 2001 website launch divided content mainly by audience, with usability testing playing a key role in validating the site's layout and navigation. In addition, each section was generally limited to three navigation levels. This approach provided an intuitive method for visitors to quickly and easily locate relevant information.

2007 Redesign

In 2005, AAN President Sandra Olson, MD, FAAN, formed a Website Task Force to bring AAN.com into the next generation. The task force was chaired by Barbara Scherokman, MD, FAAN, FACP. For two years, Scherokman led the task force and staff in identifying critical areas of improvement for the website, with the goal of making AAN.com a daily destination for all neurologists. The project included extensive work on the site's navigation structure, a new interface design, improved search functionality, and the capacity to handle multiple external and internally generated news streams, all of which would serve the website?s target audience: AAN members.

As part of the implementation of the redesigned AAN.com, a Website Editorial Board was convened, under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN. Section editors are selected to solicit and promote content relevant to specific areas of neurology.

2010 Redesign

AAN.com and TheBrainMatters.org (the AAN's patient education website) launched as a single, integrated website on February 1, 2010. The new AAN.com offers an updated version of the websites, providing extensive coverage of neurology in formats designed to appeal to both members and professionals, and the general public—now with a fresh, clean design.

The new design incorporates recommendations by the public and AAN members for improving the usefulness of the websites. More changes are planned for later in 2010.