The Client
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is the medical and public health voice working to prevent the use or spread of nuclear weapons and to slow, stop and reverse global warming and toxic degradation of the environment.
The Problem
PSR needed a website redesign. The organization wanted to create an attractive and sleek website that would prompt visitors to make a donation, take action, or learn more about the organization's efforts, without being distracted by colors or navigation. PSR also wanted to share news and content more easily with its 33 chapters nationwide, and provide them with a template for their own websites. At that time, headquarters had no control over the appearance of individual websites, which meant that the design, colors, images, and layout of each chapter's website were different and inconsistent with the branding used by national headquarters. As a result, visitors who landed on PSR's main site and clicked through to a chapter's site were presented with a different layout, navigation options, and images. For PSR, this meant a lost opportunity to reinforce its mission, brand, and key messages.
How We Solved It
PSR presented Convio with 'wireframes', which essentially served as a blueprint for the new website. With a solid foundation for the information architecture and a deep understanding of website design best practices, the Convio design team created three different design options based on PSR's mission, goals, and audiences. PSR's main stakeholders selected one of the design options that aligned with their vision of the new site. After finalizing the design direction, PSR worked collaboratively with the Convio design team to produce numerous iterations of the design, each of which brought them closer to the final version of the site. At each stage of the design's evolution, PSR completed an internal review; this high-touch process ensured that the final design had the buy-in of key staff members.
The Outcome
The new PSR website launched on Convio’s Online Marketing and content management solutions has been a win-win-win for PSR headquarters, its chapters, and website visitors. After implementing Convio's online tools, PSR headquarters no longer faces the challenges associated with preserving its brand across chapters. With a uniform website structure and a consistent color palette, the organization's brand is reinforced across each chapter's website, which now mirrors the national website in layout and look and feel. The process of sharing content and stories has also been streamlined significantly with Convio's online tools. For individual chapters, the new modular layout gives them the option to customize certain aspects of the website content, such as navigation text, but leaves national with ultimate control over the structure and presentation of information. The new design offers supporters and other visitors a more dynamic, effective and engaging experience. Opportunities for supporters to take action and/or make a donation are now clearly promoted on the site's homepage, compelling images help to convey the issues and news, and a new blog with content tagged by category makes it easy for visitors to search for topics of interest. The new design of the website helps to clearly communicate the issues that lie at the heart of the organization's mission — preventing nuclear war, addressing environmental health issues, and promoting safe energy.
Convio products used: Advocacy, Fundraising, Web Content Management
