A company name change isn't slowing down the next-generation Web portal under development at Onlife Health.

The Nashville firm's revamped iCoach4You portal, slated for launch in the third quarter of 2010, has an award-winning pedigree - the current version won a 2009 eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Interactive Site. Onlife, which changed its name from Gordian Health Services on Jan.1, beat out some impressive competition, including Humana and the Mayo Clinic, which had partnered with Microsoft.

So why revamp an award-winning portal? Says Onlife's president and CEO Chris Hunter: "We are very innovative in our approach, and that means not resting on our laurels."

When Gordian launched the site in 2008, the company saw in the marketplace the need for more comprehensive tools for motivating individuals. "More than anything, the new site is the result of talking to people - not just to customers, but also to thought leaders, consultants and focus groups, and doing extensive research," says Hunter. "The more folks we talked to, the more we recognized that this market was going to continue to evolve into a greater focus on engagement and on ROI. So we resolved to upgrade the site."

The revamped site will reflect a dual focus: first on usability, and second, on adding a social networking component.

Social networking

It's the social networking element of the new site that's the key, according to Hunter. It all began with research showing that there is a much greater potential to engage an employee if they are part of a social network. "This tends to snowball and leads to greater participation in the program," says Hunter, "as co-workers say to them, 'Gee, you look great; you've got all this energy. What are you doing? Can I do that too?'"

From the dashboard, which is the first page participants see when they log onto to the portal, a user can share information about his program and progress with friends, peers and family via Twitter and Facebook links. These contacts provide an additional motivator, and a powerful one, Onlife has found.

Throughout the site Onlife created a number of such engagement-oriented elements that keep the user engaged and interested. Says Onlife's senior VP of information technologies Eric Rosenfeld: "We've found that alongside everything else we do, if we can create a community support mechanism in which people get involved, play and compete, it makes it more light-hearted and more fun. And we will get better results that way. We've found that the more we allow people to talk to each other via the portal - trash-talking, even - the better they do."

ICoach4You's social networking focus is a big step forward, according Hunter, who sees the portal as an enhanced platform for coaches and other services. "Our coaches are empowered to do whatever they need to do to reach that person in that moment. One day it might be right to push some collateral materials to them to view or read. The next day the coach may want to talk to them over the phone. Another day, e-mail messages may make more sense; the following day, text messages may be best. We believe that the personal bond that results is a key differentiator in the marketplace as well."

Individual coaches have a high profile on the dashboard, with a dialog box for exchanging messages, a photo and background. The coach also selects the instructive videos and articles each user can use, choosing ones that are appropriate for each user. Participants are also asked to rate their coach's performance, which is shared immediately with the coach and his or her supervisor and fed into Onlife's performance evaluation system.

Usability

The focus on usability is apparent beginning with iCoach4You's dashboard. In developing the portal, Onlife spent a considerable amount of time and effort working with human factors experts - specialists who analyze how people interact with computer systems and understand what not only what makes a Web site easy to use, but also what makes it difficult and frustrating. The result is a simple, streamlined design and structure.

The dashboard also features an expandable interface that changes as the person's experience changes so as they get deeper into their program, the dashboard alters its appearance to match the person's usage pattern. This makes the program more customized, and thus more personalized.