Putting our research into action
UCS challenged Teal with a legacy website loaded with 50 years of accomplishments, an extensive and varied portfolio of work, volumes of content, and multiple audiences. They needed a partner to guide them through some ‘content spring cleaning,’ revive their look-and-feel, and modernize the overall infrastructure for the site.
In partnership with the team at UCS, Teal transformed their dense legacy website into a fresh and approachable digital presence that distinguishes UCS from other organizations in the space, captures the breadth and depth of their vision, and inspires visitors to take action and donate.
Teal conducted extensive user research that helped UCS redefine the site’s target audiences, identify the key messages that resonate best with users, and reconsider the way they communicate what they do and how they do it. Informed by our research, our teams came together for a Discovery Workshop to craft an approach for the new structure for the website. We also used the results of our research to do some live-sketching, creating working wireframe prototypes that we tested with users.
The Teal and UCS teams came together for a Discovery Workshop, where we presented our research and developed a game plan for the redesign.
Driving Action through Science
Together, Teal and UCS crafted a new website that helps UCS to more clearly communicate what they do, highlight why their work is so critical, and offer clear opportunities for people to get involved, take action, and donate. The site we created together:
- Streamlines the organization and volume of content and allows for dynamic display of content across the site
- Reprioritizes prospective donors and activists as the primary target audience for the website
- Promotes discovery and understanding of the issues UCS works on
- Lowers the barriers to action for visitors to take the first step of engagement with UCS, and offers a variety of actions that require different levels of effort and commitment
- Reframes the way issues are presented by clearly outlining what is at stake, explaining what UCS is specifically doing, and highlighting what you can do to help
- Transforms article pages into mini-conversion funnels by dynamically displaying relevant, in-context calls-to-action
- Introduces a refreshed look-and-feel that embraces the ‘facts-first’ style of the UCS predominantly black-and-white color scheme and serif-based type family
- Establishes a ‘Resources & Multimedia’ section for those who know exactly what they are looking for and want to get down to business
- Introduces an ‘organizational marketing’ module on key landing pages that clearly explains UCS’ value proposition and how UCS works
Is optimized to meet modern-day standards for accessibility
Centering the website experience around the core UCS issues
Our research told us that the way users prefer to engage with UCS is through the issues that they work on. In addition to “unburying” the UCS core issues by featuring them in the main navigation of the site, we also took a very considered approach to the way these pages were designed.
- We used images that feature people, to drive home the point that these issues have very personal and human impacts
- All Issue pages are framed by the questions that people might be asking themselves when they arrive at the page. “What is this all about?” “Why should I care?” “How will this affect me and my family?” “What is UCS doing about it?” “How can I get involved and show my support?”
- The site offers clear priorities for taking action around each issue, so that users always know the most important thing they can do right now to make a difference. It also offers a range of actions with differing levels of effort and commitment, so that everyone can get involved in the way that makes most sense to them.
The Resources & Multimedia section is a key area of the site, as it allows users to explore 50 years of research, reports, videos, infographics, and analyses. Users can browse the full library, or search and filter by topic or resource type to find exactly what they’re looking for.
We also created a variety of reusable components, giving the team at UCS the flexibility they need to edit, add, and update content as their work scales and the organization changes.
“I would do the whole project with them again in a heartbeat…Teal Media delivered an exceptional redesign and revamped the organization website. They demonstrated a keen sensitivity to organization dynamics and navigated the opinions of multiple stakeholders towards an optimal solution. Their stellar project management made them a pleasure to work with.”
