Case Study - Empowering the next workforce generation.

Overview

Empower GENNOW, is a non-profit community based organization with a mission which strives to build and leverage a diverse and inclusive workforce for young professionals and youth in Greater Cincinnati.

This has been made available through professional development, training, job placement, and the creation of leadership and mentorship opportunities through networking.

My Role in this Project

Step 1: Define the Problem

Empower GENNOW had a website previously, but it was in need of a revamped and refreshed look.

The goal was to design a product that was both visually appealing and encouraged members (both current and prospective) to find information quickly and simply using the organization’s desired branding and style preferences.

Step 2: Understand the Audience

In our meetings and my research, I discovered that a majority of the audience was of high school or college age (approximately 18-23 years old).

I created a user persona based on those findings. Creating a fictional user who has similar needs to a much larger group allowed me to ensure that my designs were always focused on the user at every stage of the Design Process.

Step 3: Starting the Design

Site Map

After reviewing the current pages and performing a competitive audit, I wanted to see if any pages could be grouped differently based on my findings from my site and competitive audits. Since the client only requested mockups of key pages (rather than the entire site), the sitemap was an excellent way to see which pages needed to be mocked up now, and which ones could wait a little bit longer. With key pages in mind, I began to ideate ideas.

Paper Wireframes

I used the "How Might We?" exercise to generate potential solutions for these pages. I’ll admit, some designs stood out more than others — but that helped me determine which wireframes were strong enough to develop into digital mockups for Empower GENNOW’s review.

During the Design Process, I saw an opportunity to reimagine the Memberships and Resources pages. These pages did not have a lot of copy on them and instead relied on the user to instinctively click on a page within the top navigation. I combined information on these pages and reimagined them to make them the one-stop-shop for anything related to Memberships and Resources.

Digital Wireframes

When I discovered wireframes that I thought would work the best, I began laying out pages in Figma. Once the layouts were built, I went back in and added color and any imagery or copy that I had at the time.

Step 4: User Testing and Findings

Initial feedback from stakeholders at Empower GENNOW was good; however, they mentioned that the white backgrounds on each of the pages was too much and requested to find a softer color. While a bit of white space in a page’s background is perfectly fine, excessive whitespace can create too much contrast. In some cases, too much empty space can lead to eye strain and make reading uncomfortable.

After reviewing several potential options, I was able to find a color to use in place of the white backgrounds. I ensured that this color complemented the existing color palette.

Step 5: Refining the Design

I used feedback from Empower GENNOW throughout the Design Process and continued to iterate on the final mockups until I was happy with each design and all requests were fulfilled.

Color contrast checks were performed frequently throughout the Design Process to make sure all color combinations passed accessibility guidelines. Design should be compatible with screen reader technology to assist any visually-impaired users (this step would be implemented by the web developer tasked with coding the website).

Step 6: Final Mockups

After incorporating user feedback from User Testing, the final designs, along with the sticker sheet, were given to the web developer in October 2022. From initial meeting to launch, the project took 5 months to complete.

The site received several positive reviews from the CEO and the web developer. It was a pleasure to work with Empower GENNOW on their web design and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity.

Final Mockups

Mockups for each of the key pages requested are below.

Takeaways from the Project

I volunteered my time and expertise to redesign the Empower GENNOW website. By doing so, the organization was able to reallocate the funds typically required for a redesign toward other meaningful initiatives.

The final design received positive feedback from the CEO, and the web developer especially appreciated the comprehensive design system and organized Figma file. Providing these assets early in the process significantly streamlined development and saved countless hours.

What I Learned

Taking the time to plan—by defining a problem statement, building a user persona, and mapping out the site—helped clarify three essential things:

• Which pages needed to be designed first
• How content should be structured and organized
• How to keep the user experience at the center of every decision

I also asked the developer for feedback on how I could improve future projects. He offered insightful advice on what to consider from a development perspective—tips I still apply to my work today.

Constructive feedback is essential to growth, and I truly value the opportunity to learn and improve with every project.