Global Justice Ecology Project

Case Study:

Role:
UX Researcher & Designer

Time Span:
March 2023 – Present (in progress)

Client:
The Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that focuses on human rights and environmental justice.

Objectives:

Increase site visitors, donors, and volunteers.

Methods:

Stakeholder Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Presentation
Information Architecture
Lo-fi Wireframes

Outcomes:

Buy-in from the stakeholders, improved UX and UI on the site based on my designs, and new information architecture.

UX Evolution

Below are screenshots of the homepage before my designs, then the designs of the homepage, and the current state of the homepage, based loosely on my designs.

Homepage BEFORE

Homepage DESIGNS

Homepage NOW

Stakeholder Interviews

These interviews were conducted longitudinally over Zoom, since there were specific needs that I addressed as they arose. For example, when the stakeholder told me that in order to get buy-in for the website work that was being conducted, I created a presentation about my research thus far and had to virtually present at a GJEP conference to get the stakeholder buy-in.

This presentation was extremely successful, especially because it got the team excited to see what the possibilities that having new user experience designs could bring.

Then, there was a trip that the GJEP team conducted to Chile in May of 2023 for human rights and climate justice activism. My role became helping the primary stakeholder contact with redesigning the homepage and the information architecture so that before the trip, potential donors and fellow activists could see what was going on, as well as to ensure that people could easily donate.

Image Credit: Langelle Photography

Business Strategy

I have been influencing some of the business strategy as well.

During my competitive analysis, I discovered that other competitors were utilizing multiple ways of receiving donations, from one-time donations to monthly to receiving stocks to putting the organization in one's will. These different methods of accepting donations made a world of a difference because it opens doors to previously untapped resources and donors. The GJEP team really appreciated the findings I showed them about this.

After my experience of working on a TechFleet project, I then realized that working on a team that would dedicate 20+ hours per person per week on this project would mean that a lot more could get done in a shorter amount of time. I suggested this as a way to complete the website to the stakeholder, and she agreed it would be a good choice to have the TechFleet nonprofit organization get people together to work on designing and developing a new site for GJEP. This would ensure that building the site based on the new designs would be completed before an activism trip to Brazil that GJEP has coming up in September.

I will be working on the TechFleet project as a liaison for GJEP and as a UX Designer, while also helping out the UX Research and UX Content teams as well.