Springboard Collaborative
Springboard Collaborative is a Philadelphia based national educational not-for-profit that bridges the achievement gap between school and home through educational interactions between teachers and families.
Web Design & Illustration
Project Overview
Springboard Collaborative approached our team to refresh their brand, and achieve better results for their programs and services. The existing website was out of date and had grown unwieldy with the sheer amount of resources they provide. Because the website was so old, it was difficult to add content, and even minor updates had to be outsourced. In addition, their branding was inconsistent and an entire facelift was needed.
Project Goals
- Easily navigate the site and speak to multiple audiences: students, teachers, parents, and potential donors
- Clear calls to action for site users
- Highlight the impact of the organization.
- Convert the website to a user-friendly platform so that updates can be completed in-house
“Working with Pixel Parlor is always a fun experience and the end product is always better than we imagined. Their team is fun, creative, efficient, and extremely responsive!”
Cathy White
Director of Communications, Springboard Collaborative
A side by side comparison of Springboard Collaborative’s homepage before (left) and after (right) our redesign.
Our Process
Starting with a visioning session to understand Springboard’s goals and to determine a path to reach those goals, we discovered a key tool on the existing website: an interactive impact report. This report was largely inaccessible due to the site’s structure. To remedy this problem and bring other important information to the forefront, we used a hands-on card sorting exercise to distill the website navigation into index cards allowing us to reorganize the website organically. This exercise allowed the Pixel Parlor team and Springboard to organize content into the best, and most logical hierarchy while creating team buy-in on the new site structure.
Finalized sitemap for new website (left), visioning session discovery boards (top right), and early sketches of wireframes (bottom right)
Web Design
With the insight generated during the visioning session and card sorting exercise, we established a flow and structure to the website via a sitemap. The sitemap allowed our team to generate an extensive set of wireframes diagrammed each page and identified any necessary interactivity. This information architecture exercise functioned as our project roadmap that helped not only to guide the creation of new content but the design of the final site.
We collaborated with the client via a content template that directly reflected the wireframes to generate original written content, manage edits, and identify photography and illustration. This centrally located document allowed all team members to manage tasks, project status, and collaborate to get the job done.
A glimpse into the wireframe phase, where a lot of tough decisions are made regarding the information architecture of the website.
Illustration
Many young businesses and organizations suffer from a lack of high-quality, professional photography and design elements to elevate their brand. During the visioning session we discovered that a key pain point for Springboard was the lack of quality of imagery to pull from and help tell their story.
By leveraging our in-house illustration capabilities, we could better tell their story and maintain the feel of a site that is focused on childhood education while also speaking to a widely varied audience. We presented the client with two design options with varying illustration aesthetics that we ultimately blended into a final look and feel that was rolled out to the site.
Outcome
The new website and imagery achieved the goal of providing a visually appealing refresh, that is easy to navigate whether you are a parent, teacher, or potential donor. The key information and data, which is only available digitally, is now easy to access and demonstrates the value of their resources to both potential users and investors. In addition, the new website, built on WordPress, is easily managed by the Springboard Collaborative team. Staff can make updates as needed and no longer need to hire out for simple updates.
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