Mockup of the gateway regional council home page on a laptop

volunteer design Leadership

Mentoring a design team with Develop for Good
As a volunteer mentor with Develop for Good, I led a group of student designers and engineers through a project to redesign the Gateway Regional Council nonprofit website.
Team:
8 talented student designers and developers
Users:
A community empowerment nonprofit and their online audience
Skills:
Leadership, consultation, design education, visual and interaction design
Scope:
10 weeks

IDEA

Partner with Gateway Regional Council to deliver a new website design that conveys their mission, work, and resources to the communities they serve, while offering opportunities for the volunteers on our team to learn and grow.
Collection of screenshots of GRC webpages, including the mission, programs, and resources pages.

I led our team through creating a website design that told the story of Gateway Regional Council (GRC), a community empowerment nonprofit with a mission to elevate voices from underrepresented groups.

Collection of components and styles from the GRC style guide

We based the website on a new style guide of color and text foundations crafted to reflect GRC's approachable, confident brand identity. Using principles from atomic design, we translated those foundations into components and patterns implemented across the website.

Design Process

I mentored our team through a design process that centered the needs of GRC and their users with empathy building exercises, while also offering opportunities for student volunteers to explore key design tools and practices.

Map of characteristics of GRC's identity
We built an identity map in collaboration with GRC to understand their problem space and anchor our design decisions.
Journey map for GRC website users
A journey map synthesized research sessions with nonprofit website users to identify key opportunity areas for our designs to support.
Screenshot of dot voting exercise
As we progressed through wireframes, I facilitated critiques and interactive partner workshops to guide our team through design decisions.
GRC website screen marked up for delivery
Thorough developer handoff notes helped smooth our transition from high fidelity mockups into live webpages.

Results

Collection of screenshots of GRC webpages, including the donation, events, and contact pages.

At the conclusion of our 10-week project, we delivered a new live look to the GRC webpage that highlighted their unique value as a platform for lifting up underrepresented voices across 3 states and over 17 partner organizations. We also provided GRC with a style guide to sustain future growth of their online presence.

To learn more about my process for leading the team through this design partnership, read the full GRC case study.

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