Redesigning an online community and website for racial equity leaders in government

in partnership with Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE)

PROJECT BACKGROUND

In the wake of the racial justice reckonings of 2020, the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) experienced a surge in membership and an increased demand for racial equity resources. Through strategic planning, they recognized the opportunity to redesign GARE’s online member portal to better serve as a vital tool for communication, connection, and collaboration among their growing network of racial equity practitioners. 

Once the portal redesign was underway, GARE also saw a need to refresh the network’s visual identity and communications, including its logo and website. We worked with GARE over the course of 18 months, helping them to conduct a community-engaged and human-centered design process to redesign these different aspects. The new online experience is one that brings new value to the network, surfaces ongoing insights for GARE, brings fresh energy to the brand, and reflects its vision for a vibrant, just, and multiracial democracy.

MY ROLE

This project was completed as part of my work at Greater Good Studio. I served as Strategy & Design Lead, and worked closely with a team that included an Operations Lead, 2 researchers and 2 designers.

Design Deliverables

In Spring 2024, GARE launched the new visual identity and online experience, re-introducing themselves to their network and the broader public with a more functional, visually appealing, and user-friendly site. It garnered positive reactions from members, and continues to both unify GARE across every touchpoint, as well as differentiate them from peers. 

For the online experience, we refined the visual styling for the website and community portal user interfaces, and we delivered a final set of annotated page designs, an information architecture, and user interface (UI) style guide to support the development build.

Visit the new website at www.racialequityalliance.org.

SELECTED WEBSITE DESIGNS

SELECTED ONLINE COMMUNITY PORTAL DESIGNS

To support the application of the new visual identity system, we created a Visual Identity Guidelines document detailing how the logo, typography, color palette, and other graphic assets, like icons, patterns, and photography are meant to be used to create a cohesive and consistent brand experience.

The new logomark builds around the letterform of a capital ‘G’, emphasizing the government aspect of the work. The symbol evokes waves of change moving toward a brighter future on the horizon. The updated color palette grew from the previous color palette, particularly keeping reference to GARE’s primary green. We amped up the vibrancy of the core colors and added new accents that brought a bolder and brighter look and feel.

Additional elements that define the new visual identity are wave shapes and color gradients, or the gradual transition of one color to the next. Together these elements speak to the unique, and yet connected journeys of network members, and connote fluidity, movement, and change. 

VISUAL IDENTITY SYSTEM

CUSTOM GRAPHICS & BRANDED TEMPLATES

We created a set of branded graphics and templates for key communication materials. Central to the network is the GARE approach, an organizational change model for achieving racial equity in government. We designed a graphic to visually communicate the GARE approach, leveraging elements from the new logo and creating custom pictograms to represent the different aspects of the model. We also created custom graphics to visually represent the different steps of GARE’s Racial Equity Tool, a guiding process for proactively identifying opportunities to advance equity. Lastly, we designed new templates to support the ongoing creation of promotion graphics for key programming and events, e-newsletters, presentations, and reports.

Process Overview

  • We began our work with exploratory research, including learning conversations with staff, leadership, and network members, an analysis of the current portal, and a review of aspirational network platforms. This discovery research helped us to better understand organizational assets and capabilities, as well as the needs and hopes of key stakeholders.

  • We organized our research findings into a framework, based on the different “modes” through which we found members engage with the GARE portal. For each mode, we wrote user insights and opportunity areas, which served as the foundation for ideation. 

  • We synthesized over 400 ideas from two workshops into a collection of 20 potential concepts for the portal, and illustrated each with a low-fidelity wireframe. We then shared these concepts with network members to further develop the ideas and gather feedback on user priorities.

  • We facilitated two workshops with GARE staff and leadership to align on strategic direction for the portal. We then prioritized the portal concepts based on member feedback, organizational priorities, and technical constraints surfaced in a feasibility review with development partners.

  • Building on the learnings from exploratory research, we engaged GARE team and network members to share their thoughts and ideas for a new website. We crafted two strategies for organizing the website’s content and features for communicating GARE’s network narrative.

  • Based on the defined strategies, we designed and built prototypes for both the portal and website experiences. We shared these prototypes with current and potential network members, as well as key stakeholders, to gather their feedback on content strategy and usability. This input ultimately informed the final user experience (UX) design.

  • Alongside our portal and website work, we conducted a visual analysis of the current brand and several peer brands to better understand trends and opportunities in this space. We also engaged staff and network members to share their current perceptions and future aspirations for the GARE brand, through ideation activities such as brand message brainstorming and visual moodboarding.

  • We synthesized the feedback and designed three visual directions, each represented by a moodboard and mockups, as well as 4 logo concepts centered on core brand themes. We compiled all of these options into a survey, and gathered feedback and preferences from over 70 network members and staff.

  • From the survey results, we moved towards finalizing the visual identity system. We designed four distinct visual identity systems, including several logo iterations, color palettes, type systems, and supporting visual elements. We present these in critique sessions with staff and network members, further refining each time based on feedback. 

Client Testimonials

  • “We learned strategies and tools for network engagement that we continue to use. The reports and synthesis of network conversations that were developed through the project provided a high degree of transparency for the decision paths we took. We have tried to replicate the documentation, clear decision points, and human-centered design principles in other projects at GARE.”

    — Sarah Lawton, Director of Online Community at GARE

  • “Greater Good marries the best of iterative and creative design processes with a thorough, and adaptable project management style. I appreciated how Greater Good Studio adapted to our need to further engage our membership network in the visual identity redesign process, while also balancing of project interdependencies, allowing us to stay within project scope and right relationship with our network.”

    — Nadia Mohamed, Director of Network Narrative & Communication at GARE

  • “In our previous work with consultants, the work gets done but it never becomes fully integrated because no one in the organization really feels ownership of the work. Working with Greater Good Studio was so different. They brought the additional capacity we needed, but they also worked so closely with our team that we retained a strong sense of ownership of the work we’re truly proud of.”

    — Cathy Albisa, Vice President of Institutional and Sectoral Change, Race Forward

Selected Projects

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  • Creating a new identity for a leader in local business lending and coaching

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