Detailed case study.
Brief
Sustainable Surf are a 501 (c)3 that are working to transform surf culture into a “powerful force for protecting the ocean playground.”
A clean website redesign that applies design thinking to their website to amplify support for their cause.
Focus on visitors
Provide appropriate solutions to the way people are using their site, donating, and the way the charity is generating content.
Process
User needs
Business (non-profit) needs
Wireframe blog and donation solutions
Apply updated branding
Before state
Since this is the content creation method that the Sustainable Surf team find most comfortable I proposed disregarding the blog section in favor of an Instagram feed.
Appropriate solution
Most of their content creation comes through Instagram. Their unusually good social media skills mean there’s no need for a traditional blog section in the CMS here.
Simplify
This change simplifies both the delivery and creation method in which the charity promotes their news.
Wireframes
The next thing that was looked at was supporting a more organic donation and sustaining membership sign up process.
I produced wireframes that include three levels of subscription, as well as a traditional donate now call to action.
Homepage options
People come to the site primarily for information – they see how to donate – and then may follow in social media. The new wireframes allow the site to highlight the sponsorship opportunities and also promote the ambassador stories and events.
A more immersive experience
The way in which these are interwoven with content gives a more immersive user experience and should help amplify support.
Instagram feed
Stories
I integrated easily digestible ‘stories’ as a way to better convey their various videos and projects.
Deliverables
Version 1 deliverables for the homepage and a story page.
Key impacts and learning
Simplified content creation and delivery
The key is that there’s nothing ‘new’ to the client here – they already had the content and product, I simply applied design thinking to it.
More immersive
The new layout helps the content come to the forefront, and also allows for more intuitive user discovery of subscription and donation options.
Easy to use
For newcomers, finding out about Sustainable Surf and what they do has never been easier and the donation process is more rewarding.
Increased subscriptions and donations
These changes to the site layout should increase subscriptions and donations through the website.
User interaction patterns could be tracked to help increase the effectiveness of subscription area locations.