LGBT Center of Raleigh Website Re-Design
Project Overview
The LGBT Center of Raleigh is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit corporation that seeks to identify needs and advocate for resources benefiting the diverse population of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, their friends and supporters within and beyond central North Carolina. Learn more
The existing LGBT web site was created 5 years prior and was in need of a makeover. Web Developers Victoria Coleman and Kelly Miller both designed and built a new site layout using Bootstrap to improve the Center's web application.
Objectives
- Update existing website layout to a more modern design
- Reach out to a new demographic of the community while continuing to care for the center's current member and volunteer base
- Increase the number of donations and sustainers
The Project Team
- Victoria Coleman
- Product Owner, Developer, Designer
- Kelly Miller
- Developer, Designer
- James Miller
- Executive Director, LGBT Center of Raleigh
- Kelly Taylor
- Assistant Executive Director, LGBT Center of Raleigh
- Jim Manchester
- Web Developer
The Community
Voices from all over Raleigh helped contribute to this redesign. Staff, volunteers, and members of the center were all welcomed to provide feedback and ideas for the website. This is an application that affects a large and growing community. Their voices mattered most during the planning and development of the LGBT Center of Raleigh's website.
The Executive Director James Miller, Assistant Executive Director Kelly Taylor, and Web Developer Jim Manchester all led the way for this redesign to be a successful project that benefited both the community and the Center.
The Original Website - Pre Re-Design
The Design Process
Read more about our design process here Design Process
Research
Kelly Miller led the research and analysis of non-profit web design. She uncovered related color theory, user experience methods, and performed SWOT analysis on other sites with similar objectives. Her education and background directly benefited the project and implemented a strategy that achieved our goals for the website.
Community Involvement
A Facebook poll collected opinions from the volunteers of the center to talk about what they would like to see improved, how they believe the site is used most, and what questions they receive most often from members of the community.
Additionally, a suggestion box was left at the Center for a week to collect suggestions from members. These were collected and recorded for future maintenance and continued editing of the webpage as a whole.
Wireframing and Mockups
The New Home Page: Post Re-Design
See more re-designed pages here
Future State and Roadmap
- Continue to maintain and update the new site
- After the site is launched, a link will be provided at the bottom of the page to bring users to a survey about their experience. This data will be monitored and taken into consideration for further maintenance of the site to make sure goals were reached.
Tools
Bootstrap
Used a layout called Modern Business to quickly scaffold the website.
Trello
Implemented Agile development with four sprints, one for each week allotted for the project.
Balsamiq
A mockup tool to plan, integrate, and develop layouts.
Canva
Visual template creation used to display SWOT Analysis, style guides, and sketches.
Survey Monkey
Creates an easy to use survey for users to complete after visiting the website to evaluate some of their user experience.