Introduction
Just Share approached several companies to refresh their branding, and redesign and rebuild their website. Ultimately our pitch was successful.
Challenges
Starting with a brand refresh, the website needed a fresh, new look. Additionally the website needed an entirely new architecture to make it much easier to navigate.
Just Share is a non-profit shareholder activism organisation. They frequently publish resources in PDF format. As their old website had increased in size over time it became increasingly difficult for users to find relevant documents.
Solving this problem was crucially important for this important legal archive.
On a technical level of course the restructuring had to be done while preserving their large database, as well as retaining their URL structure and permalinks since many resources are referenced on other websites.
Just Share’s previous web developer had to resign, so we needed to develop a long term support solution for such a large and complex website.
Solution
Designer Josh Sowter was the creative lead on the project.
Starting with the brand refresh, the logo was simplified from a multicolour, highly-detailed logo into a simplified silhouette version which retained elements of the old one. From here, the logo redesign informed the rest of the brand direction.
Using the FlowMapp software we held several video conference sessions with Just Share to start addressing the core issues of site architecture and navigation. It was determined that the resource library fell into categories representing six types of resources. In addition, the resources categories often re-appeared under the company’s core services. Hence a service / type matrix was developed which is reflected in the “What we Do” section whereby each service lists several category types.
From here we were able to build a simple navigation to access the resources, either via the “What we Do” mega-menu, or via the Resources mega-menu.
Additionally the new website features a People, Job Opportunities, and Funders sections. There is also a media (news) section, in the media, and op eds sections. These were all redesigned.
We continue to work with Just Share in a support capacity, and to develop new sections such digital media section featuring videos and podcasts. We created several new post types to accommodate the new sections.
Impact
Just Share were very happy with the result, both in the front end and in terms of managing the website. We continue to enjoy a fruitful relationship with the team at Just Share.
