Overview

Designed a website concept for the relaunch of an arts and cultural social change organization. I conducted research with stakeholders in and outside the organization to validate use cases and prioritize features. I then conducted market research to gather inspiration on information architecture and design. Finally, I wireframed and tested concepts. The resulting concept resonated strongly with the client and became the basis for their new website.

Center for Cultural Power, formerly known as CultureStrike, is an artist of color led social change organization that seeks to amplify new cultural narratives via art and activism, and support artists and activists with the tools, knowledge, and resources to change society. The Center wanted to design a new website for their launch that both communicated their vision through its design, while also furthering their mission: turning their archive of resources, blog posts, and templates into an online home that empowers artists and activists. (Find out more here.)

Conversations with staff, artists of color, and leadership helped to gain a sense of both individual and organizational needs and priorities. CfCP's work is their ability to tell stories and amplify voices of marginalized people to write and publish new cultural narratives. They're at the forefront of cultural social change movements — and they're also a nonprofit that needs to meet fundraising objectives.

These conversations helped to generate a wishlist of functions, roles, and feature requirements for artists and staff.

The map of various needs also spoke to metaphors — the role of the website and its relationship to different stakeholders: a 'house' or 'home,' a 'library,' or a 'mentor.'

Collecting inspiration on layout and featuresets from journalism, storytelling, and even science publication platforms.

Several rounds of concept iteration.

With their upcoming launch, I passed the concepts on to their newly hired staff designer, who polished them.

• I fell in love with this project. As an artist of color, getting a chance to work with those at the forefront of a movement representing people like me, and amplifying the voices of those who need it, really resonated.
• I also loved getting a chance to dream up an innovative format for an online ‘home for artists,’ and felt our work really expanded into some novel directions.
• The concept itself likewise resonated strongly with the mission and vision of our project partners. However, given the need for fundraising in the short term, they decided to iterate towards a more traditional nonprofit homepage and blog format — the right call, as it was an easier mental model for donors to navigate. A few key features from the original concept remained, such as the tagged search and filtering that really defined the early concept.
• This was a lesson in balancing stakeholder needs — in this case, between the vision for an ‘innovative storytelling UI that serves as a home for artists’ work and stories,' and the need for donors to instantly understand that this is a nonprofit and they can donate to support it. The innovative format was inspiring, but also introduced a lot more complexity of mental model and interaction than we had time to design for.
• My takeaway — balance the call for innovation with the need for familiarity and project scope.

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