• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 28, 2012

When Bob Rinderle joined GE Healthcare as its global digital marketing leader, the brand’s website was so terrible, his boss got tired of hearing him say how much it sucked. RInderle, an ex agency guy, set about fixing it with some very simple, visual storytelling techniques.

Among the sources GE Healthcare’s site redesign drew from, he told Brand Marketers Summit attendees, included Wikipedia and Porsche.

Wikipedia provided the information architecture to make it simple to find vital information. Porsche inspired beautiful, functional design.

“We feel like we took a step from laggard to leader, particularly in the healthcare industry,” Rinderle said, adding that it also appears to be having an effect on GE’s corporate site design.

He showed a side-by-side that did suggest some strong design similarities between GE Healthcare and GE.com, adding, “Although I never pressed them to admit it.”