Nonprofit Web Design: Prioritizing Functionality

Redesigning a nonprofit music teachers association website can have a significant impact on the organization's ability to attract new members, showcase its offerings, and communicate its mission. The main goals of this teachers organization are to provide local private music teachers with a way to connect, help each other, and grow professionally, as well as provide high quality group festivals and educational opportunities for their students through their collective efforts.

When I redesigned this site I was a private music teacher and member of the organization. I sought to bring more clarity and order to the busy organization through the website. I needed to create something that was updated and functional, easy to use, and visually appealing.

Opportunities

I identified two main opportunities for improving the website:

• Increase functionality and ease of updating the site through moving to a different platform, Weebly

• Enact a cohesive brand style for the organization, with a consistent color scheme, typography, and imagery, increasing trust factor

Recommendations

I suggested the following recommendations:

• Incorporate modern design elements and features that enhance user experience, making navigation easier

• Enact a cohesive brand style for the organization, with a consistent color scheme, typography, and imagery, increasing trust factor

• Move site content to Weebly, an easy to use drag and drop website builder, so more people can be comfortable with updating the site

• Create a blog for greater transparency, communication, and publicity

Execution

I moved the site to Weebly, bringing along all of the necessary content over to the new web platform. I optimized the content by refreshing copywriting, creating a logical flow to complex pages through headings and hierarchy, used images to bring pages to life, and featured calls-to-action prominently on the home page.

Results

Although I do not have access to metrics for the original nor the new site, I received lots of positive feedback about how the new site functioned compared to the original site. As a teacher, I found numerous benefit from the site as well, especially through improved navigation and organization.