Every day, it can feel like our democracy is threatened. We desperately need organizations like the dynamic “think-and-do” tank, Dēmos, to lead us toward a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy.
Rather than being a powerful tool to advance their mission, the aging, unresponsive Dēmos.org more often left visitors feeling confused and uncertain.
The new Dēmos.org guides visitors through clear user pathways and helps them understand Dēmos’s core issues. We paired a dramatically-simplified information architecture and content structure with gorgeous, people-first design to create an impactful experience that educates, inspires, and motivates visitors to action.
Dēmos staff, board, and site visitors consistently report an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the new site. We have heard things like, “not only does it look great, but I now actually understand what Dēmos does.”
Our discovery was broad and comprehensive, including a full-day onsite workshop, and review of internal stakeholder research and user personas. It became clear that Dēmos’s work is complex and nuanced– often driven by current events, media coverage, and public attention. As such, the old site was a difficult-to-navigate index of overly parsed content.
One thing was incredibly clear however: at their core, Dēmos is all about advancing democratic reform and economic justice through a race-forward lens. By building the new website around these essential truths, we not only set a foundation upon which the rest of the site was constructed, but upon which they could organize their great library of content for users to easily find and quickly grasp.
Publications and cases are at the heart of Dēmos’s work. However, on the old Dēmos.org these were difficult to navigate and sometimes scattered throughout the site, rather than centrally located. We created new content types that give visibility to these efforts and allow users to navigate the rich information they contain in an easier, more efficient way.
While Dēmos was undertaking holistic brand identity work, we partnered with them to design a website with a refreshed visual identity that elevated their brand from a simple color palette and wordmark to a whole new level. With Dēmos’s essential truths around democratic reform and economic justice in hand, we created a content-first design system that places people-centered photography and bold typography front and center. Together, these elements more powerfully tell the story of Dēmos’s critical initiatives across the country.
“Throughout our redesign, ThinkShout kept us grounded in our goals as an organization, in the needs and perspectives of our audiences, and in the practical realities of our budget and timeline. We are thrilled with the final redesign of Dēmos.org, but the true benefit of our collaboration with ThinkShout goes well beyond the new site.”
Progressive organizations are always working in an extraordinary number of ways to advance the cause they care about, and Dēmos is no different. Regardless of what comes and goes in the media spotlight or public narrative, a website that is founded upon an organization’s “essential truths” holds steady through it all. You become better positioned to not just weather whatever comes, but harness the momentum and use it to your mission’s and brand’s advantage. With a new cutting-edge website founded upon the fundamental reasons why the organization exists, we can’t wait to see what Dēmos does next.
04.22.2019
The launch of WeVoteWeCount.org and its importance today.
