Casa el Norte

User-Centered Website Design

A non-profit refugee shelter desperately needed an online presence

Date Completed

December 13, 2019

Platform or Medium

Adobe XD

Role

UX/UI Designer

Deliverables

Responsive design and prototype

Brief

Casa el Norte had no online presence, making it difficult for refugees in need of services, volunteers seeking opportunities and donors within the community to find and interact with them. As part of their strategic planning, the Board identified the need for increased promotion and outreach, with social media and website development heading the list of solutions they are looking to explore. The following were identified as the main site objectives:

  • Provide information regarding the Casa el Norte organization, making it available to a global audience
  • Provide a list of available services
  • Encourage volunteers and facilitate their application process
  • Encourage and facilitate donations
  • Legitimize the organization with the government and public
  • Provide administrative access for staff and Board Members with password protection
  • Become an authoritative resource for refugees by providing current immigration news, policy updates and quality content to establish trust

Design Process

My job was to make sure that Casa el Norte's vision and values were reflected through their website and that their website enabled visitors to quickly and easily obtain the information and resources they were seeking. Working with their staff and clients onsite, we were able to ensure their purpose and integrity was maintained through all client touch points. The most important consideration in the design was the experience and needs of the different user types. Because the users would be coming from countries with varied internet quality, I decided to forego unnecessary ornamentation and data-hungry imagery in favour of a design where all the needed information was easily located and laid out in a logical manner. To ensure that functionality was priority, I mocked up the entire site in wireframes first, adding a fresh, clean colour palette, appropriate images, legible typography and large buttons.
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Outcome

Focusing my design on the functionality needed by each unique user type, I designed a website with a classic navigation system free of any bandwidth-intensive interactions or graphics, a back-end login for board members and staff and a download page serving up important documents in a variety of languages.

My design was selected unanimously by the Board of Directors (from 40 submissions) to be developed into their live site.