Website Redesign and Content Strategy
Project Overview
Client
Strive Publishing is an independent publishing company with the original mission to publish children’s books and young adult novels with contemporary and relatable stories from African American communities to support emerging African American authors and inspire young readers.
Challenge
The client is in the process of shifting from being a children’s book publishing company to a community publishing social enterprise that uplifts and supports the voices and contributing authors from across the Black community, inclusive of the wider African diaspora. Our goal was to redesign the Strive website to visually communicate Strive’s refocused mission and feature a community storytelling platform .
Our Process
Stakeholder interview → Competitive analysis → Survey → Directed Storytelling Interviews → Wireframing and Information Architecture Diagramming → Concept Evaluations → High-fidelity Prototyping → Presentation and Prototype Package
Solution
A redesigned website that visually conveys Strive’s refocused mission and supports community engagement through three calls to action:
Publish a Book
Community Storytelling
Support Strive
Outcomes
If adopted by the client, these solutions will:
Reduce the client’s consultation time through a streamlined manuscript submission process and increased resources and tools for prospective authors
Increase the number and visibility of published stories from within the Black community
Increase Strive’s visibility and generate more sustainable revenue through merchandise and donations
Design Team
Ruth Abend, Sarah Monson, Luke Rivard, Pana Vue
My Role
This was a highly collaborative project from scoping the project and conducting research to ideating designs and making strategic decisions. I primarily focused my efforts in the research process:
Moderated and/or took notes for user interviews, concept evaluations, and usability testing
Synthesized survey data
Reported the high level insights to the team.
I also created the Strive Community Publishing flyer touchpoint, developed the initial client-facing slide deck, and served as the primary point of contact for communication with the client.
Tools
Methods
Zoom
Invision Freehand
Pen and Paper
Figma
Axure
Google sheets
Keynote
Stakeholder Interview
Competitive Analysis
Survey
Directed Storytelling Interviews
Wireframing
Prototyping
Concept Evaluations
Usability Testing
Deliverables
The Process
Our research process consisted of two primary phases: 1) an initial research phase in which we identified what community members need through a stakeholder interview, user interviews and a survey, and a competitive analysis, and 2) an iterative design and evaluation phase in which we tested our designs in consultation with the community to find out what was working and how to improve our solutions.
Understanding Client Goals
We first met with the client to gain insight into how Strive came to be and the client’s business and engagement goals going forward. Together, we identified the following goals for our project:
Redesign Strive’s website to:
Shift the brand from Strive Publishing to Strive Community Publishing
Communicate inclusivity and participation among the Black community
Provide resources and guidance to prospective authors for refining and submitting their manuscripts for publication consideration
Support community storytelling and engagement by providing a community storytelling portal and opportunities for members and allies to support Strive’s mission
Survey
Goals
Gain deeper insights into the barriers that exist and what is most helpful within the black community for sharing their stories
Identify which formats would be most helpful in facilitating story sharing within the Black community
Gain insights into existing strategies for accessing stories and identify opportunity areas for allies and supporters who want to support Strive’s mission.
Key Insights
Within Black community:
members hear stories via word of mouth
interest in sharing stories via variety of formats (print and digital)
access to resources and vulnerability biggest barriers to sharing stories
training and guidance and a supportive community would help members share stories
Within ally community:
members learn about stories via news outlets, social media, and word of mouth
desire to uplift Black stories by reading/buying stories authored by Black authors via Black owned bookstores and sharing with family/friends
Directed Storytelling Interviews
Goals for interviewing authors:
Gain a deeper understanding of the experience (opportunities, pain points) for publishing a book (insights from published authors and writers not yet published)
Discover what content and aesthetics users find to be inclusive, engaging, and inviting
Key findings for authors:
some participants indicated a need for editors and an understanding of what it is they do.
all participants expressed a need for affordable publishing options.
most participants indicated, in their journeys as authors, a moment where they had to overcome a sense of uncertainty or feeling of fear regarding if their story was worth turning into a book or not.
Goals for interviewing educators:
Learn more about what methods and tools educators use for discovering books for their students that best represent their identities.
Gain deeper insights into the pain points educators face when searching for books that best represent their students’ identities.
Key findings for authors:
significant gap between initiatives to promote reading and literacy and a lack of culturally appropriate reading material for children; also not teaching kids the skills of how to comprehend what they’re reading
educators often refer to their local libraries, as well as YouTube and Google, to find supplemental books and resources
Understanding the Space
Because we learned from the survey responses and interviews that the primary barriers for sharing stories are feelings of vulnerability and fear of how these stories will be received and that limited resources and a lack of guidance for preparing a manuscript presented significant obstacles for publishing stories, we decided to heavily focus on tone in the redesign of Strive’s website to provide reassurance and guidance for new authors and also to convey a quality of inclusivity to reflect Strive’s new Community Publishing platform.
We conducted a competitive analysis of other businesses and organizations invested in publishing, storytelling, and supporting initiatives within the Black community to gain insights into how they communicate their mission on their websites. We learned that:
colors and language play a crucial role in conveying an overall tone
there is a significant spectrum of tone from dark and serious to bright and playful.
Concept Evaluations
In the next phase of research, we took all of our research findings and created initial designs for the homepage and the logo--both of which serve as the face of Strive. Because it was important to us to make sure that these designs resonate with members of the Black community and also communicate Strive’s refocused mission of community-based storytelling, we tested versions of our designs through several rounds of evaluation sessions with the community.
Rethinking the Logo to Ensure Inclusivity
Results from the first round of evaluations indicated that most participants preferred a black over a white background. This design, however, rendered the two black figures and company name on the original Strive logo invisible and thus necessitated a change to the logo colors. We explored various alternatives, including making the figures white against a black background. Because we were concerned with the implications of making the figures of the Strive logo white, we conducted another round of evaluation sessions. In consultation with the client and feedback from users, we decided to move forward with the white logo for the website but keep two versions of the Strive logo to increase merchandising flexibility.
Presenting Our Solution
We presented our website redesign and content strategy to the client. In the presentation, we highlighted our process for identifying branding elements that best resonate with the Black community as well as the three primary calls to action for boosting community engagement and increasing Strive’s visibility:
Publish a Book
Community Storytelling
Support Strive