Futures Without Violence

OVERVIEW

Client & Sector: Futures Without Violence (FUTURES), Nonprofit
Serviced by: M&R Strategic Services Inc.
My Role: Senior Digital Designer, UI/UX Design Concentration
Tools Used: Figma
Team Members: Art Director, Senior Project Manager, Content Strategist , & Senior Developer
Live Site: https://futureswithoutviolence.org

Background: Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) is looking for an agency to help transform the look and overall experience of their website. They want to partner with industry-leading experts to help them expand as a resource to help end violence around the world.

The Problem: While the current website offers a wealth of information, it also offers supporters a confusing user experience and does not adequately provide a cohesive user journey. In addition, FUTURES is having a hard time conveying their message/story to users to convince them to take action. With these observations, FUTURES needs to redesign its current website to showcase a smoother user experience, to amplify its growing network of supporters, to transform donor relationships, and to scale up awareness.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY | KICKOFF MEETING WITH STAKEHOLDERS

The Objectives:

Embody the brand story
Create a cohesive and compelling user journey that connects with our current and potential new audiences
Build knowledge among supporters
Inspire action among supporters
Grow our supporter base

Actions the redesign needs to support:

Inspire users to believe that a future without violence is possible!
Donate to help support FUTURES’ work to create the world we all want to live in, free from violence, abuse and hate.
Attend an event or workshop to share knowledge, learn skills and hear about everyday actions users can take to support people of all ages to live free from violence and abuse, and heal from harm.
Join a campaign to support positive behavior change, shift social norms, educate yourself and others, etc.
Take Action with FUTURES to prevent violence before it starts, help those who have been harmed, heal, and create the kind of world we all want to live in.
Explore FUTURES’ resources to help build knowledge, promote healthy relationships, and end the cycle of violence.
Join our movement by subscribing to FUTURES’ email list and stay informed about the change we are all making together.

STRATEGY & IDEATION | PROJECT BRIEF DEVELOPMENT

Project Discovery: During the discovery phase I worked with the internal team to solidify the project goals, hear from key stakeholders, and begin to explore the state of the current site while brainstorming our strategy for approaching the new site. We began with a kickoff meeting formalizing the scope, worked through a lengthy Discovery Q&A forum, gathered assets & organizational resources, and ran a full stakeholder workshop with the larger FUTURES team. The discovery phase resulted in a Project Brief, establishing their Goals, Scope, Audience, Competitive Analysis, Web Analytics Analysis, Design Strategy, and Content Strategy.

Our Design Process:

Mood board - 2 rounds of design
Sitemap - 3 rounds of design
Low fidelity wireframes - 2 rounds of design
High fidelity wireframes - 5 rounds of design

RESULTS & REFLECTIONS

Our Outcome: I wasn't able to gather any results metrics. I was no longer working under M&R Strategic Services Inc. once I completed the design process and handed it off to development.

Note: Design changes have been made since this launched in early 2025 but the overall design direction is still present on Futures Without Violence's website.

My Thoughts: Most of my time and energy that was put in this project was developing the project brief. Establishing a strong foundation of where FUTURES were and where they wanted to go was crucial. The project brief was about 15 pages long and we touched on over 7 different topics. It took 3 rounds of edits to get the brief finalized, but once it was done it served as an audit that they could use as a resource for other creative projects going forward. Through that process and the high fidelity wireframes, my team and I realized the client needed a refresh of their brand strategy before diving in a website redesign. That approach would have cut back on rounds for edits and shorten the length of the project brief. However, we were able to meet their expectations. I learned the importance of explaining the value and differences between brand strategy, content strategy and design strategy.