Monash University’s Low FODMAP Diet

Monash University wanted to internationalise the Low FODMAP Diet™. This project would include an ecosystem of integrated systems for efficiency and ease of use as well as a new approach to give it a platform of its own. The outcome was a striking visual design, seamless integration, and outstanding usability.

The Brief

With millions of people to reach at home and abroad, Monash University needed to raise the profile of their revolutionary research around the Low FODMAP Diet™, bring a raft of offline systems online, and give their locally successful app a leg up to reach international markets.

For this, they needed a website that was more than just a pretty face — it needed to appeal globally as well as be able to include an ecosystem of integrated systems for efficiency and ease of use. The deadline: three months.

Approach

The original FODMAP content resided as a page on the primary Monash website, along with everything from course information to staff directories. The most significant concern was that it was buried in the enormous amount of content contained in the main website of the largest university in Australia.

The new approach was to give FODMAP a website of its own – and a powerful one at that – with clear navigation and messaging and free from the constraints of the University brand (though we were careful to maintain brand integrity. Our goal was to ensure that the graphics, colors, and typography were authoritative yet inviting, warm and colorful.

A major challenge of the design was tailoring the website for three very different types of users, each requiring a different user journey to reach a desired action. We solved this problem by creating landing pages for each user group, accessible from the sticky menu at the top of every page.

The tight 3-month timeline posed significant challenges for a project of this complexity.

Solution

As a result of Butterfly’s experience with integrations and understanding the requirements for different audiences (both Australian and international), we were able to architect a complete solution for Monash University. At the core of the solution was the CRM – Salesforce of which we recommended and managed the implementation. From there it was a matter of creating the integrations that the success of the site relied so heavily on.

To start we needed to bring Monash’s large and complex process of product and recipe certification online. In addition to simplifying and automating the process, we wanted to ensure that food manufacturers and Monash alike were able to update content easily, providing a well documented, streamlined process that allowed for easy onboarding of stakeholders.

The eCommerce platform designed for future growth. As a result of the two-way integration built with Salesforce, Monash was able to reduce overheads, streamline operations and become more efficient.

Another aspect of the project was the integration with a Learning Management System (LSM). Any university will attest to the frustrating difficulty in building a user-friendly, attractive and responsive learning management system. Monash University was delighted when we delivered exactly that. Even the folks at Canvas were impressed with what we could do with their products and Rise.

The key to unlocking international markets, particularly US markets, came by creating brand awareness with targeted email marketing. The strategy was to focus on each of the three disparate user groups – IBS sufferers, food manufacturers, and dieticians. We were able to deliver relevant content to each user group using Ezymsg – our own email marketing platform. This allowed them to navigate to the LMS, the app, as well as the online store.

Outcomes

1. A striking visual design, seamless integration, and outstanding usability
2. Converting spreadsheets and word documents into a web-based automated system
3. Establishing a brand to an international audience
4. The 3-month timeline was achieved