Case Study: Orphans of War Website Redesign

TSO Media was already working on plans for a website redesign for Orphans of War when their website was hacked. Plus, they didn’t have backup systems in place. It was all lost.

The good news is that because they were already working on new content with TSO Media, they took advantage of the otherwise bad situation and chose to hire TSO Media to redesign and rewrite the entire site.

 

My first recommendation based on previous site attacks and limited budget that they move hosting for the new site to a more affordable and more secure host, Dependable. Done.

 

Dependable WordPress Hosting logo
Easy, Stress-Free WordPress Hosting

 

My second recommendation was that we only use photos the organization has taken. This would create the emotional, credible, and raw connection the organization needed. Knowing the photos make a huge impact on perception and the design of the site, the site needed to be designed using the real photos in an interesting way.

 

Orphans of war photos
Actual photos of orphaned children framed in Polaroid paper for nostalgia and stamped with the goals for these children, hope, peace, and a future.

 

While the subject matter is sad and needs to be moving/compelling, weighing to heavily on the sadness could turn potential donors away. Instead, I focused on hope, the possibilities from the changes that helping this population brings. The potential donor is facilitating hope, and ultimately happiness.

Hashtag in kid-like writing
Colored masking tape for Donate button

 

To achieve this feeling of hope, I chose a light and cheerful color palette, whimsical fonts in a few key places, and nostalgic elements in order to remind site visitors of their own childhoods with the goal of contrasting the visitors’ childhoods with those of the orphans in the war zones.

TSO Media’s Robert Nissenbaum provided temporary, placeholder copy for the new site so we could get started ASAP.

 

photo of Orphans of War Website on a desktop, laptop, and tablet display
Screenshot of live site

 

Nonprofits can’t afford to pay for inexperience. The investment Orphans of War has made into the new site and their social media campaigns by hiring such a professional agency as TSO Media are for the long game and ensure their money is spent wisely.

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