Client
Peace Restored
Project
Website Re-Design
My role & skills
Head of Stragegy
Project lead
Information architecture
Strategy
Development lead
UX lead
Design lead
Objective & Challenges
Redesign the website to create a safe, accessible, and intuitive space where women facing traumatic life experiences can find support and resources. Peace Restored’s existing website didn’t effectively address the unique needs of its audience, many of whom are navigating highly sensitive situations, such as abuse, grief, or depression. The site needed an empathetic design approach that prioritized ease of navigation, quick access to resources, and trauma-sensitive features, such as a discreet exit button for safety.
Process & Workflow
Initial Research
I evaluated the old website to identify usability challenges and areas where the content organization could be improved for a more empathetic user experience. I created specific personas to represent key client types, including:
A young widow seeking emotional support.
An elderly widow dealing with isolation and grief.
A middle-aged woman experiencing domestic violence, needing secure and discrete access to resources.
A middle-aged woman with trauma from past experiences, looking for counseling and healing resources.
A middle-aged woman interested in community support groups for ongoing mental health challenges.
Empathy Mapping
To create a trauma-informed and accessible design, I began with an in-depth empathy mapping process, interviewing real users to understand their specific needs and emotional states. The audience included women facing challenging life situations, from domestic violence survivors to widows, and those experiencing ongoing mental health struggles. By incorporating insights from these interviews and developing personas, I identified key improvements to make the website a safe and supportive space.
Personas and Key Insights: Working through personas allowed me to represent different types of users:
Safety Concerns: Many users in abusive or dangerous situations require discretion when browsing. This insight led to the development of a “Quick Exit” button, enabling users to leave the site instantly without attracting attention.
Information Access: Users emphasized a need for straightforward navigation, especially to access urgent resources such as counseling and support groups.
Dual Functionality: Interviews highlighted that, as a nonprofit, Peace Restored also serves a second critical audience: donors and supporters. This group needed quick access to information about the organization’s mission, goals, and ways to contribute, making it necessary to integrate a secondary navigation path on the website.
These findings became foundational for the redesign. By focusing on empathy and user safety, I structured the site to balance sensitive access for clients seeking help and informative pathways for donors interested in supporting Peace Restored’s mission.
Journey Mapping
To further refine the user experience, I developed detailed journey maps for each persona, which allowed me to visualize the steps and emotions each user might experience as they navigated the website. Given the sensitive nature of Peace Restored’s services, journey mapping was essential to identify potential pain points, moments of hesitation, and critical needs during the user’s interaction with the site.
Key Persona Journeys: Each journey map focused on the unique motivations, needs, and emotional states of the personas, revealing essential improvements:
For Users Seeking Immediate Help:
Pain Points: These users often arrive on the website in distress, seeking immediate access to resources like support groups, counseling options, or contact information. Any delay or confusion could heighten their stress.
Solution: Streamlined pathways were created, allowing users to find vital resources directly from the homepage. The journey map helped prioritize "Urgent Help" sections and make support resources available in as few clicks as possible. The Quick Exit button was also made visible on every page to accommodate sudden needs to leave the site discreetly.
For Users Seeking Information and Connection:
Pain Points: Some users may not need immediate assistance but want to explore available resources and gain an understanding of Peace Restored’s programs.
Solution: Journey mapping for these users emphasized the importance of clear categories and simple language in the navigation structure, so they could browse freely and comfortably. Information was organized to provide progressively deeper insights, allowing users to explore at their own pace.
For Donors and Supporters:
Pain Points: Donors and potential supporters often visit the site looking for information about Peace Restored’s impact, mission, and future plans. Journey mapping revealed that these users benefit from a separate, direct path to organizational information without navigating through client resources.
Solution: The site was structured with dual functionality in mind, creating a dedicated section for donors and supporters that includes information on the organization’s history, impact stories, and ways to contribute. This pathway allowed donors to feel connected to Peace Restored’s mission without encountering the sensitive client-specific content.
Key Findings from Journey Mapping: The journey maps highlighted critical touchpoints and clarified the need for intuitive navigation, a calm and supportive design, and distinct paths for different user groups. Additionally, journey mapping provided insight into the mental and emotional states users may experience, influencing the tone, visual hierarchy, and placement of content. The final design ensured that each user, whether a client in need or a donor ready to support, could complete their journey with minimal friction and a sense of empathy and support.
Information Architecture
To create a user-friendly structure that served both the primary audience of clients and secondary audiences, including grant committees, volunteers, and donors, I developed a clear and intuitive information architecture. After careful consideration of user needs and journey mapping, we structured the main navigation into five clearly labeled sections:
About: Information on Peace Restored’s mission, vision, and team, providing context and building trust with new visitors.
Services: A section dedicated to Peace Restored’s services, including counseling, support groups, and other resources specifically designed for women facing trauma.
Resources: Educational materials, articles, and tools that support mental health and wellness, offering value to clients and the broader community.
Get Involved: Opportunities for supporters to volunteer, donate, or participate in events, designed to make it easy for those looking to contribute to the organization’s mission.
Donate: A direct link to donate, allowing visitors to quickly support Peace Restored financially.
This structured navigation successfully balanced the needs of all user groups, enabling grant committees, volunteers, and donors to quickly find the information they needed while maintaining easy access to services for clients. This division helped Peace Restored present a professional and organized digital presence, enhancing credibility and accessibility.
Footer and Additional Links: To support user navigation, we designed the website footer to contain essential contact information and links to secondary pages. Additionally, a sitemap was provided for internal use by the Peace Restored team, allowing them to quickly access any page on the site as they maintain and update content.
Quick Exit Button: Given the sensitivity of the user base, we integrated a floating “Quick Exit” button in the bottom right corner of the site. The button is bright red for high contrast, ensuring that users in need of a quick escape can find it easily. Upon clicking, the button instantly closes the Peace Restored website and redirects the user to either Google Search or Amazon, depending on their browsing history. This feature was designed with user safety as a priority, allowing clients to discreetly exit the website if necessary.
Design and Development
For the design and development phase, we chose Squarespace as the platform due to its user-friendly interface, ease of maintenance, and ability to maintain a cohesive visual style with minimal technical oversight. This choice allowed the Peace Restored team to manage content updates independently, ensuring the site would remain up-to-date and reflective of the organization’s ongoing initiatives.
Visual Design: To convey a sense of calm and hope, I selected a light, uplifting color palette that combined soft tones with vibrant accents. This approach gave the website a warm, inviting feel, aligning with Peace Restored’s mission to provide a safe and supportive environment for women seeking help. Additionally, I incorporated airy, colorful photography that brought visual appeal and added a positive, welcoming atmosphere to the site.
Typography and Visual Hierarchy: Given the sensitive nature of the content, I aimed to prevent overwhelming users with large amounts of text. Instead, I utilized a strong visual hierarchy to create engaging, catchy headlines that quickly conveyed essential messages. Descriptive text was kept concise and strategically placed, allowing users to absorb information quickly without feeling burdened by lengthy descriptions. This approach ensured the site was both accessible and engaging, with users able to find key information easily.
Development and Responsiveness: Squarespace’s responsive design options allowed us to create a seamless experience across devices, ensuring accessibility for all users, whether on desktop, tablet, or mobile. We focused on optimizing load times and minimizing distractions to keep the user experience smooth and focused on Peace Restored’s core offerings.
Accessibility and Safety: In alignment with the trauma-informed design principles established earlier, I integrated accessibility features to meet WCAG compliance standards, ensuring the site was usable for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, the Quick Exit button was embedded within the design as a prominent yet discreet safety feature, further supporting users in vulnerable situations.
Launch and Post-Launch Analysis
After launching the redesigned Peace Restored website, we closely monitored performance metrics at 30, 60, 90 days, and 6 months to evaluate the impact of our design and SEO improvements. Our primary goal was to ensure that the new site structure, optimized content, and enhanced user experience were effectively reaching and engaging Peace Restored’s target audience.
Results at the 6-Month Mark: The analytics at the 6-month milestone demonstrated significant growth and engagement, confirming the success of the redesign:
810 Website Visits (+29%): The redesigned site attracted more visitors, reflecting increased interest and accessibility for users seeking support or information on Peace Restored’s mission.
602 Unique Visitors (+4%): The number of unique visitors also grew, indicating that the website was reaching a broader audience.
1.5K Page Views (+45%): Enhanced navigation and visual appeal contributed to a notable increase in page views, suggesting that users were more inclined to explore additional resources and information.
66% Bounce Rate (+0%): The bounce rate remained stable, showing that despite increased traffic, users were engaging with the site and not immediately leaving.
97 Website Clicks from Search Engines (+39%): Improved SEO drove a substantial increase in organic search traffic, as more users clicked on Peace Restored’s site directly from search engine results.
3.3K Impressions from Search Engine Results: The website’s visibility in search results continued to grow, raising awareness of Peace Restored among users searching for related services.
2.98% Click-Through Rate (CTR) (+75%): The CTR increase was significant, indicating that the new site structure and targeted SEO keywords made Peace Restored’s content more appealing to search engine users.