Background
The Chess Institute of Canada was long overdue for a new website. Their old site was cumbersome and outdated, and was not set up to take donations which was key to their new direction as a charitable organization. Already well established in schools across Toronto, they wanted to bring their programming to underserved communities and needed the support of donations to fund these efforts.
My basic role was to design a Wordpress template for the client to move their existing site content to and maintain the site’s ability to support program registration. However, the client’s ultimate goals were to
(a) position The Chess Institute of Canada as a charitable organization and inspire support through donations and
(b) continue to promote the Institute’s programs at schools.
The client generally relies on word of mouth rather than marketing to promote their programs.
(a) position The Chess Institute of Canada as a charitable organization and inspire support through donations and
(b) continue to promote the Institute’s programs at schools.
The client generally relies on word of mouth rather than marketing to promote their programs.
Process
I conducted some user research and testing in tandem with a template design—as much as time and budget would allow. I also explored what inspired people to donate their time and money which informed the content strategy that the client needed to develop.
Testing around functionality and adjustments were straightforward but when exploring the Institute’s move to inspire donation, I learned that people:
• want to know where their money is going and the impact of their support
• don’t want generic stock images—they want to see and hear stories about real people
Outcome
The client appreciated the extra care and were happy with the design. Inspired by my testing and insights from talking to people in the field, they conducted some of their own research to try to resolve their own questions about content.
Team of three
• UX Research and Visual Design
• Operations Manager
• Frontend Developer
• Operations Manager
• Frontend Developer
Website
Suggested hero banners to rotate through in a carousel
Menu hover states
How the desktop menu translated over to mobile.
How the the sidebar information translated over to mobile and an adjustment to try to make old content more enticing.
Feedback on the design was generally positive and favourable but people stumbled on "Changing Lives". I made some suggestions based on their feedback.
The client was well-established in the school community and had many testimonials that we wanted to feature. They also wanted to feature mini stories and asked for a "Humans of Chess" design to use when needed to stand apart from regular content.
Design evolution from sketches to wireframes and final design.
The final design
