Bringing passion and activism to life through UX
Clean air, water and land are essential ingredients in building and maintaining healthy, vibrant communities. For over 25 years, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment has worked to defend the skies, waterways and terrain in and around the area of the Long Island Sound.
CFE’s success, through both legislative and activist pursuits, is built on ongoing engagement with their activist members, donors and future generations of environmental stewards. When faced with the problem of connecting with those audiences and bringing their passion to life in the organization’s digital expression, CFE looked to Tenet for advice.
What began as a quick “web redesign” project soon became a journey, where every aspect of CFE’s marketing was put on the table and questioned. Brand architecture, user experience and engagement with stakeholders were all reimagined through the eyes of CFE’s audiences.
To help our teams navigate through this process quickly, we turned to our human-centered design methodology. In our first workshop, we created the personas the team used to inform future exercises, where we were quickly able to:
- Re-architect and reposition the brand
- Evaluate stronger brand attributes and thematic messages
- Define a common and accepted taxonomy and labeling system
- Build an information architecture and systems of wayfinding and navigation
- Construct and apply a user experience that captured the energy of the organization and drove action its across disparate audiences
After building the foundation based on user’s needs and organizational vision, we put plans into action through the construction of an entirely new digital presence. What had been a primarily informational site became an engaging, motivational and intuitive experience designed to drive action. Developed from the ground up, the site can be easily managed, nurtured and maintained by the CFE team not just for today, but well into the organization’s future. Fully-responsive, and designed around customer personas, the site helps potential and existing CFE members come together online.
Our proven methodologies for working collaboratively is what made this project successful. Our shared passion for environmental stewardship helped not only create a personal bond between Tenet and CFE, but an even stronger bond between CFE and their constituencies.
