In 2021, Northern Plains Resource Council identified the need to update their website in order to address five main problems: tell the story of the organization better both visually and narratively, streamline user journeys to donate or become a member of the organization, update the UI, improve backend functionality for staff, and establish a new and better relationship with a 3rd party website developer.
Scope: 18 months
Software used: ClickUp, Airtable, Wordpress, Elementor
Team of stakeholders:
Dustin Ogdin, Communications Director (Northern Plains Resource Council)
Caleb Lande, Fundraising Director (Northern Plains Resource Council)
Janelle Levesque, Account Manager (Tapp Network)
Kyle Barkins, Co-Founder (Tapp Network)
My role: Project Manager and Creative Director
Caleb Lande, Fundraising Director (Northern Plains Resource Council)
Janelle Levesque, Account Manager (Tapp Network)
Kyle Barkins, Co-Founder (Tapp Network)
My role: Project Manager and Creative Director
Old website navigation bar and menu.
New website navigation and menu.
The former website design was built in 2015 and had not been updated since. The visual design was outdated and aesthetically unappealing. Additionally, the user journeys to make a donation or join the organization were confusing, and Northern Plains’ mission and various issue areas and affiliates were not well-showcased. Lastly, much of the backend functionality had broken over time due to staff transitions with the third party developer.
Old website home page.
Process:
The team began by auditing the current website and identifying our top priorities. We determined we wanted a website that we could manage almost entirely ourselves, without much help from a developer, had an updated UI, and told the story of the organization more cohesively, allowing users to easily take action or join the organization after learning more about who we are. With these priorities in mind, we developed a Request for Proposals to find a new developer.
We sent the RFP to a variety of developers and website agencies, interviewing our top candidates in a few rounds, before landing on the agency Tapp Network.
Over the next 12 months, we culled through 200+ pages of existing content, determining which pages and website copy we wanted to carry over to the new website, and which we no longer needed. After this, I built a new sitemap, determining how to fit together new and existing pages of content and their hierarchy. From there, the team wrote content for new pages, pulled together images, and worked with Tapp Network on the new, front-end design and functionality.
Before launching the new site, we soft-launched by sharing a sandbox URL with the rest of the staff team and board. We gathered their input on the overall look and feel and pain points, to make last minute changes and final improvements. Finally, in June 2022, we launched the site by migrating the new design to our URL.
New website homepage.
Old website staff page.
New website staff page.
Old website affiliate groups page.
New website affiliate groups page.
Old website donation page.
New website donation page.
Outcome:
Through this process, we solved all of the problems we set out to fix, telling the story of the organization better both visually and narratively, streamlining user journeys to donate or become a member of the organization, updating the UI, improving backend functionality for staff, and establishing a new and better relationship with a 3rd party website developer.
