Earth Force Non Profit
Delivering a brand + web strategy to inspire growth
OVERVIEW
Earth Force is a national environmental non-profit with over 30 years of experience partnering with school districts, youth-serving organizations, and educators to evolve student learning through Environmental Applied Civics (EAC). Earth Forces delivers program integrations that enable students to enact environmental change through their local governments.
PROBLEM SPACE
Earth Force is seeking to grow their donor response and secure district wide partnerships, yet their website is outdated and doesn’t speak to their impactful mission. Their current site lacks a clear brand identity, doesn't engage specific audiences, and presents confusing information architecture.
SOLUTION
Earth Force needs a total brand and website re-design that speaks to core educational audiences. I was challenged to first capture the story of Earth Force and then build a new brand and website strategy that ignites growth and connectivity.
MY ROLE
I served as the Lead UX/UI Designer in collaboration with the Leadership Team. I delivered a customized logo suite, branded iconography collection, as well as growth centered design across 12 responsive web pages.
IMPACT
New site designs improved customer conversions by 80%, reduced bounce rate by 90%, showcased a 100% customer engagement rating, and a 100% brand recognition rating.
TIMELINE
6 months, on going contract
TOOLS
Paper, Pencil, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Squarespace
Who is Earth Force?
COMPANY RSEARCH
I held multiple conversations with Earth Force staff as well as conducted internal literature reviews. The main brand values that emerged were:
Youth empowerment, community, connectivity, civic leadership, and environmental resiliency.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
The Leadership Team wanted a careful balance between youth centered elements and adult engagement in order to showcase their role as professional consultants at the district level.
How might we craft a website that ressonates with key audiences within the education space?
Earth Force delivers program enrichment to public school classrooms
Understanding Core Audiences
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
I devised three key personas: The District Leader, The Non Profit Leader, and the Educator. I then recruited and interviewed professionals for these user groups in order to define and understand customer audiences.
EMERGING INSIGHTS
I synthesized research notes into relevant themes and strategies. The main strategies that emerged were to create a strong digital community, showcase field expertise, and speak to school ecosystems. This research helped me to define user audiences and to enact the strategies that would lead to conversions.
Building a 0-1 Website
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE / CONTENT STRATEGY
After reviewing the website direction with the Leadership Team, my next step was to take stock of the origianal website content as well as content needed for the new site. I built out information architecture to ensure clear page structuring before the build.
Crafting Working Templates
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
I rapidly built wireframes aligned to template patterns in Squarespace, client content needs, and website research strategies. This enabled me to share a Figma file with the Communications and Program Manager at Earth Force forming a makeshift design team.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Perfecting Conversion Flows
USABILITY TESTING
I recruited and conducted multiple rounds of summative usability testing iterating designs in between each session. This enabled me to articulate the best conversion strategy across the site to enable company growth and mission transparency.
Data Insights
Website Delivery
FULL FIDELITY PROTOTYPES / SITE BUILD
I created full fidelity interactive prototypes and presented final designs to the Leadership Team. Feedback was positive with no notes for improvement. Earth Force staff felt the website helped to represent and define their amazing mission as an organization in service of environmental and civic education.
HOME PAGE
The hero space captures the attention of potential audiences through a defining hook and a strong CTA strategy. We implemented friendly language, simple navigation design, and impactful imagery to drive engagement. The Home page delivers action oriented design bolstered by customized elements such as hand built iconography.
OUR APPROACH PAGE
This page further defines the Earth Force core mission enabling complex content to be well defined through scannable and readable text box structuring and a strong use of media.
PARTNERSHIP PAGES
I created strategic templates to directly speak to key partnerships audiences- District Leaders, Organizational Leaders, and Educators. We utilized educational buzz words, anecdotal examples, and collaborative language to bring Earth force services to life.
COMMUNITY FOCUSED PAGES
We strategiacally built community enagement oriented pages to showcase events, conversations, and thought leadership.
Final Thoughts
BRAND GUIDE BOOK DELIVERY
I delivered a Brand Guide Book capturing research data, personas, color scheme, type styles, icons, logo usage, and image strategies.
Brand Guide Book
STAYING IN TOUCH
It was exciting to partner with Earth Force to balance business goals with user needs. I found success navigating ambiguity, complex constraints, and conflicting needs through research driven Human Centered Design. I am excited to stay in touch with Earth Force to track new partnership growth and website conversions.