Chuck Chamness, vice president-public affairs for NAMIC, said winning the award validated NAMIC Online's redesign of the site, which was launched July 18.

WMA said the 1,300 sites that were entered and adjudicated during this year's competition came from 19 countries.

The award recognizes a standard of excellence for which all corporate Web sites should strive, according to the WMA. It said the annual award competition judges corporate Web sites against an Internet standard and against peer sites within their industry.

Entries were judged on design, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, ease of use, and use of technology.

Jon Gorman, Online Services manager for NAMIC and the designer of the new site, said, before revisions were made, "We strategically planned the redesign by measuring success, traffic to the site, and user satisfaction of NAMIC Online. We felt it was important to redesign the Web site to address numerous issues; however, navigation and ease of use were our primary focuses."

NAMIC Online features news and information on the property-casualty and farm mutual insurance industries, as well as NAMIC activities in government relations, public affairs, education, arbitration services, and insurance and employee benefit programs and educational seminars.

The site also provides information about NAMIC's annual convention and learning opportunities available through NAMIC, as well as postings concerning NAMIC conferences, boards, committees, affiliate partners and membership; and NAMIC publications including Property/Casualty Insurance magazine, news releases, and public policy papers.

NAMIC said its audience for the site includes NAMIC members, property-casualty and farm mutual insurance company executives and staff, news media, policymakers, and consumers.

The mission of the site, NAMIC said, is to increase member participation in association services, programs and advocacy initiatives; inform members daily on insurance industry issues and trends; and build membership through increased awareness of NAMIC's public policy, advocacy and services.

With the revised navigation and appearance of NAMIC Online, the redesign of the site also features enhanced story archives, seminar and event registration, and a specialty newsletter.

The search function now includes a search form on every page, and streamlined and simplified navigation from 21 global topics to five featuring dynamic drop down menus.

Changes also included individual home pages specific to both property-casualty and farm mutual news and information about educational opportunities.

Additionally a site map was added and changes made to the "About NAMIC" section, including a members-only resource guide, employment at NAMIC, and benefits to NAMIC members.

In addition to its work on NAMIC Online, NAMIC said its Web Services has designed and maintained more than 25 sites for member insurance companies, state insurance trade associations, and affiliate organizations.

Boston-based WMA is an independent volunteer organization of Internet marketing, advertising, public relations and design professionals that was founded in 1997 with the purpose of evaluating, recognizing and increasing the standard of excellence on the World Wide Web. Its site is located at www.webaward.org.