Making things clear

This site redesign was started on the heels of a major messaging revamp being done by the organization's marketing team. They had spent countless hours defining their process and working that into a paradigm of Four Pillars that describe the focus of their work. This meant that transferring that clarity to the design of the site was important, and users needed to be able to understand this new information at a glance. Instead of focusing on specific projects or programs at the top of the homepage - which may or may not make clear for uninitiated users what UBRI's purpose was - the hero area instead displays humanizing images of the community participating in these programs and very bluntly states their mission: "Supporting Stronger Regional Economies for All". Directly below this, a lot of homepage real estate was dedicated to promoting the Four Pillars and providing links to resources to learn more. 

Getting to work

The website provides a platform where UBRI can "brag" about the impressive projects they've been able to successfully work on, or active projects which need community support. For many users, this may be the only place where they will encounter an awareness of the scope of work being done. Because of this, having several touchpoints on the site to encounter this work was important. The homepage has 3 sections to serve work to users - a featured project that can be highlighted, three recent pieces of work, and then a call to action to see all their work. Additionally, the main navigation divides work into "Recent" and "Past Work" and allows users to clearly access that part of the website with a single click.

Additionally, pages for individual work were designed with a number of sections that can be turned on or off depending on the specific information for that project, and allows the team to include downloadable documents, and custom sections of information per project.

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