HealthySimulation.com
Founded in 2010 by Lance Baily, HealthySimulation.com focuses on the worldwide healthcare simulation community with a resource website that provides daily news, CE/CME webinars & courses, product demos, job listings, conference highlights, and research updates.
Originally serving more than 40,000+ unique visitors a month, 38,000+ weekly email newsletter subscribers, 55,000+ social media followers, and 13,000+ CE/CME LEARN platform users, through daily articles written by real industry experts (M-F), weekly webinars, weekly newsletter, jobs board, daily social media posts, non-profit media partnerships, video productions, and industry advertising, the new website had doubled traffic and engagement.
HealthySimulation Re-Platforming
The client sought to modernize their outdated 2017 WordPress website and proprietary LMS, which suffered from broken functionality, poor performance, and subpar user engagement. WebDevStudios was tasked with redesigning and rebuilding the platform to improve usability, accessibility, and revenue generation while unifying fragmented systems into a cohesive, high-performing website.
Industry: Healthcare Education & Simulation
Services Provided: Custom WordPress Development, Data Migration, UX/UI Design, LMS Integration, Community Platform Development, SEO Optimization, Accessibility Compliance, Performance Optimization
“We are excited and hopeful! I showed the site to some of my colleagues and friends, who were all very impressed. We are coming out of this as a butterfly!”
~ Lance Bailey – Founder/CEO
Overcoming Unique Challenges
During the initial strategy, discovery and planning phase for the website, we worked together with the client and their team to identify real challenges their current platform was facing so that we could focus on providing solutions. Those challenges included:
- Outdated Technology: The legacy website ran on PHP 7.4, with broken links, missing images, and database errors.
- Fragmented Systems: Content and user data were spread across multiple platforms, including LearnWorlds LMS and a separate WordPress site.
- Poor User Experience: The existing design lacked accessibility and failed to engage users effectively.
- Revenue Optimization: The client needed improved tools for advertising, webinar recruitment, and course sales.
- Scalability: The platform required a robust infrastructure to handle traffic spikes and future growth.
HealthySimulation: Solutions
WebDevStudios designed and developed a modern, block-themed WordPress website on WDS BT, migrating all user and media content from the legacy systems. The new platform integrates advanced features to enhance performance, user engagement, and revenue generation.
Data Migration: Seamlessly migrated 16,000+ users, 350+ courses, and all media content from LearnWorlds and the legacy WordPress site.
LearnDash LMS Integration: Replaced LearnWorlds with LearnDash for a more robust and customizable learning management system.
BuddyBoss Community Platform: Implemented BuddyBoss to foster community interaction through discussion boards, user profiles, activity feeds, and direct messaging.
Enhanced Advertising: Integrated AdButler for banner ad management, enabling keyword-based ad displays, rotation, and A/B testing.
Personalized User Experience: Added user-specific content recommendations based on search history, preferences, and engagement.
Accessibility Compliance: Redesigned the site to meet WCAG 2.2 Level A standards, ensuring inclusivity for all users.
Performance Optimization: Implemented aggressive CDN caching, structured code repositories, and multi-browser support for faster load times and scalability.
Regulatory Compliance: Integrated GDPR and CCPA-compliant cookie consent management.
Revenue Tools: Added Stripe for payments, discount code functionality, and improved webinar recruitment with automated calendar invites and reminders.
Vendor Dashboard: Developed a real-time analytics dashboard for vendors to track user engagement, ad performance, and content interactions.
Technologies Used
WordPress: Custom block theme (WDS BT)
LearnDash: LMS for course management
BuddyBoss: Community platform
AdButler: Banner ad management
ActiveCampaign: Customer Data Platform (CDP) for user tracking and engagement
Muse.ai: Video library with enhanced keyword search
Gravity Forms: Replaced Formidable Forms for improved functionality
Stripe: Payment processing
WPEngine: Hosting with CDN caching
Zapier: Automation for workflows
Google Analytics & Pixel: Tracking and reporting
Results
The new HealthySimulation.com platform has significantly improved user engagement, accessibility, and revenue generation. Key outcomes include:
Doubled Traffic and Engagement: Post-launch analytics show a marked increase in traffic and user interaction.
Streamlined User Experience: Unified navigation and personalized content recommendations have enhanced usability.
Improved Revenue Tools: Advanced advertising and webinar recruitment features have boosted client revenue.
Scalable Infrastructure: The new platform is optimized for performance and ready to handle future growth.
Community Growth: The BuddyBoss integration has fostered a thriving online community for healthcare simulation professionals.