Painting the New Face of Security

Ellicott City, MD, January 24, 2005 — Brook Group, LTD has created an new user experience for Columbia-based Network Security Consulting (NSC), to bring their innovative Common Compliance Framework application to market. Version 1 of NSC’s highly complex application designed to help businesses efficiently mitigate security risks at the enterprise level. Their Common Compliance Framework portal is on the cutting edge of today’s security methodology. As NSC’s CEO Trey Guerin described it, “This application is the new face of security.”

However, the program itself was so complex that the challenge of creating a simplified interface required user interface expertise. NSC turned to Brook Group for help. Brook Group’s objective was to improve the application’s usability, to make it a smooth and intuitive experience, and to test and repair certain functions within the Java engine and JSP pages that constitute the application. In order to achieve this, Brook Group gave the application a face lift by re-designing the interface and employing their user experience expertise.

As Brook Group’s Managing Director, David Beveridge explains, “We look at our clients’ technology in the context of their marketing and business goals. We think about their audience at the same time that we think about their technology.” Brook Group’s design team created an interface for the Common Compliance Framework portal that was both aesthetically attractive and easy to maneuver. The new interface helps users understand how things relate to one another and the order of operations.

“In order to simplify this complex system, we created a hierarchy of information that wasn’t there before.”  According to Brook Group’s Creative Director, Michelle Suazo. “Our goal was to have it appear simple and to deliver the concept quickly without overwhelming the user.” Simplifying complex technology is a consistent theme in Brook Group’s work.This simplification for users does not entail reducing the complexity of the program. Rather it is a process of organizing elements into a fashion most easily understood by a user. This enhances the user’s ability to make use of the more complex features and thereby appreciating the full power of the application. 

“Brook Group’s power here is our ability to communicate with each other,” says Suazo. “In order to give the user the best possible experience, we need the perfect mix of design and programming-weighted decisions. Designers and programmers need to share a common interest or the user loses out.”

“Making complex technology simple for the user is a hallmark of Brook Group’s work,” says Kara Brook. “We always come through for our clients but we really shine when someone has a complex application that needs to be effortless for its users.” Brook Group was also hired to develop marketing materials to promote NSC’s Enterprise Security Portal.

“We are a unique Web design shop,” says Beveridge. “Most firms have great strengths in either design or programming but not both. Brook Group specializes in the Web and the Web is a unique combination of marketing and technology. To really master the Web, firms genuinely need to master both of these disciplines.”

About Brook Group

Brook Group, LTD is a strategic Web design, content management and custom engineering firm with a commitment to user experience development. Brook Group provides information architecture that helps organizations streamline internal efficiencies and increase market share. The firm has earned its impressive reputation through 20 years of innovating customized Web tools that help businesses reduce costs and increase productivity. Brook Group specializes in customization, creative design and branding, content management, Web application development and Internet marketing.

Brook Group, LTD holds a GSA schedule and is a certified MBE. Their clients include industry leaders such as Ameritrade, VeriSign, the US Government and 20 divisions of America Online. Brook Group’s content management product, Tacklebox®, is one of the most customizable and easy-to-use products on the market.

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