Western Rivers Conservancy

Western Rivers came to us looking for a website that better reflected the gravity of the work they were doing in riverlands preservation. They had mountains of evidence of their impact though breathtaking photography and detailed reporting, but they needed us to translate it into a more compelling narrative.

My Role

My role in this project was unique in that I operated both as the designer and the producer. Producing this project allowed me to work intimately with the client, which strengthened our communication and ensured satisfaction in the final product.

My Team

Tijani Stewart,
Web Designer

Ben Martinez-Bateman,
Backend Developer

Amy Hwang,
Frontend Developer

400+

Projects and Counting

800+

Virtual Conference Attendies

Our main objective with this project was to go beyond just generating donations. We needed to convert visitors to believers in the Western Rivers' mission, promoting long-standing partnership. We took advantage of Western Rivers’ beautiful photography to immerse visitors into the natural landscapes they cherish to communicate the value of what their partnership is protecting.

 

While immersive imagery draws the visitor in, carefully crafted storytelling keeps them engaged and encourages conversion. This is why we were especially conscientious of keeping the content easy to digest. Generous whitespace and traditional typographic treatments allows each page to be robust, yet light and accessible.

Process Deep Dive: Projects Map

  • Early Iterations

    We created an interactive map area that allowed visitors to get a high-level overview of Western Rivers’ body of work. Early iterations explored what high-level content would best showcase the breadth of work while keeping visitors engaged and compelled to click.

  • Exploring Scale

    We created an interactive map area that allowed visitors to get a high-level overview of Western Rivers’ body of work. Early iterations explored what high-level content would best showcase the breadth of work while keeping visitors engaged and compelled to click.

  • The Result

    Eventually we settled on exploration-by-state. All projects could be browsed in a list view. The map would zoom into which ever state was currently displayed in the sidebar, revealing pins. Alternatively, users could click a state to scroll to its corresponding list of projects.

  • Future Refinement

    Plot twist! After launch, we were able to see how users interacted with the map and understand where friction points existed. We concluded that it would be beneficial for atlas controls to be visible above the fold. We also created a simplified dropdown where projects could be scanned much quicker, opting for a corresponding popup with a detailed project overview.

  • Map Makeover

    Ultimately, the client decided they preferred showing all map markers at once along with topography, so the map itself got a facelift as well.

Final Thoughts

Through our partnership, Western Rivers gained not only a beautiful new website, but also a basecamp for their community to convene. With the added ease-of-use and accessibility, they’ve kept their site consistently. They even began hosting a live-streamed series that boasts 600+ participants a week. While a website build can seem like a daunting expense for a nonprofit, Western Rivers’ investment has clearly been worth-while, with traffic and donation numbers that exceeded previous years within the first few months of launching.

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