Direct Relief is a group that works to equip health professionals in resource-poor communities to meet the challenges of diagnosing and caring for people in need, mainly by directly providing critical medical and aid supplies. It is one of the world’s most efficient and effective charities.
For this project I chose to redesign Direct Relief’s landing page for their website. Speaking personally, Direct Relief is an inspiring organization for me and a charity I support. Letting their organization’s strength shine through this redesign was a big motivation.
Visual Design
Information Architecture
Branding and Tone
Richard Wu
James K. Kuo (Professor)
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
3 Weeks
Class Project
Continued as Personal Project
Crisis around the world, such as the earthquake in Turkey at the time of the project or the ongoing war in the Ukraine were causes I supported, partly through Direct Relief. Visiting their landing page however I was confused by a lack of organization and clarity, as well as a lot of information overload. It did not reflect the actual efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.
This landing page communicates the core values and strengths of Direct Relief, and updates its brand, information architecture, user experience and CTAs, fostering trust for the organization and better facilitating donations.
How many people donate to charities? What motivates people to donate to charities? What information do people need to inform donation or support? Answering these questions help to structure the information architecture, CTAs and overall rhetorical and visual strategy of the page.
To get a greater sense of the specific contexts around this page I also interviewed friends and family about charities and perceptions about recent global events. I particularly focused on individual experiences around donations.
Beyond their own financial capability, the factors people care most in a charity are trust, transparency, and effectiveness. People want to know that their money is being put to good use.
A significant portion of charity donations are affected by causes. The news, notable disasters and other visible affairs significantly motivate charitable donations.
At the time of the project, the biggest causes that people cared about were the 2023 Turkey earthquake, the war in the Ukraine, COVID-19 and global climate change.
What is Direct Relief? What does this organization care about? What is this organization trying to achieve? How are they communicating this and going about achieving it? To answer these questions I dived into Direct Relief’s work, their history, as well as their values and how they present themselves.
To help establish a basis for visual design direction, I looked into Direct Relief’s existing visual design, as well as the designs of competitors for precedent and inspiration. What did competitors and the landscape look like?
Direct Relief is advantaged by having grounded photography that directly shows its operations. Featuring this can foster a unique sense of trust and humanity.
Direct Relief has a lot of data about all of its operations and its history, including exactly where aid is going and what is being done. Incorporating this data can be persuasive.
One of Direct Relief’s unique strengths and differentiating factors is both its secular nature as well as the scale and innovative nature of its operations. Effectiveness over just heart strings.
Keeping research insights in mind helped to structure the information architecture, CTAs and overall rhetorical and visual strategy of the page as I thumb-nailed fundamental layouts.
I sought feedback to get more perspectives on the foundations of the page, especially about how less traditional layouts were perceived.
The best ideas from the sketches were taken further into mid fidelity wireframes. A main focus was typography and overall page hierarchy, and balancing information richness with imagery and brevity. Avoiding information overload, learn-ability, gestalt and progressive disclosure were on my mind.
The best designs are interesting, not just functional. Can we come up with some creative ways to help communicate a piece of Direct Relief’s story in a way that people remember, that sets the brand apart from everything else?
I played around with Direct Relief’s “Boots on the ground” images, as well as visual metaphors to communicate stability. Not to mention speaking technically, ornamentation can be a memorable and exciting departure from standard, modernist flat design. Can we make something rational but emotionally resonant at the same time?
To get to the high fidelity wire-frames, the visual style was refined into a consistent system that would be used throughout the design. I chose to remain faithful to Direct Relief’s brand colours as a base with some considered extras for visual interest. I chose a unified header and body typeface for a neutral, clear and unbiased feel.
The final iterations were refined with direct feedback. I made sure every visual element served an intentional purpose, to communicate Direct Relief’s strongest points and to support the CTAs, highlighting what people look for in a charity.
Grounded imagery directly from Direct Relief’s operations take precedent, showing its reliability and efficiency.
The page is unified and understandable, with relevant information that inform and incentivise donation being featured, centralizing information about Direct Relief’s biggest efforts and projects.
Overall, Direct Relief’s brand and online presence takes a familiar but new spirit; More dynamic, more idealistic, more organized, and but also still faithful to a grounding sense of humanity and service.
This project meant a lot to me personally, and represents something I believe in.
I was lucky to grow up well off in a safe community. Basic supplies such as the correct medicine and food where always there. But even then, my parents would talk about how hard it was for them growing up. How hard it was to find enough to eat or to stay warm in winters. They went through a lot. As much as we worked for what we have, I have no doubts that I wouldn’t be where I am today, nor would my parents, if it weren’t also for the generosity of others.
One of my most fervent beliefs is that you have a responsibility to try to give back. Privilege does invite you to dedicate at least a part of your life to something greater then just yourself.
I believe in service. It's a belief I've held for a long time, It’s part of the motivation behind this project and and its something I will carry forward with me into my career.