The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) fights hatred and bigotry, seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. They maintain an annual list of hate groups, expose incidents across the country, and provide critical intelligence for journalists and the public alike.
SPLC’s content had been grouped by internal structures, such that important and timely content would often get lost and fail to stitch together a larger story.
We developed intuitive relationships that allow visitors to blaze their own path through the site and discover the most meaningful content. Security and performance were also paramount, resulting in a site that meets SPLC’s mission-critical standards.
2016 Webby Award Winner
+370% Increase in pageviews
+22% Increase in return visits
After reviewing usage data for the SPLC’s previous site, we realized visitors faced a significant roadblock because content was organized according to internal structures. We worked with the SPLC on a comprehensive content strategy that put visitors first. This key step helped maintain – and build – the SPLC’s reputation as a trusted source of information for supporters, donors, and the general public.
The SPLC’s Hate Map has deep cultural impact, and it was due for a redesign to make the content more actionable and interconnected. ThinkShout worked with the team at the SPLC to rebuild the digital Hate Map from the ground up. By showing all of the hate groups in the United States in a single interface, the Hate Map tells a powerful, and troubling, story. The latest map, featuring updated reporting for 2018, is more engaging than ever, with fully realized state pages and deeper connections into SPLC’s investigative journalism.
The complicated infrastructure of the previous site was re-engineered with three key requirements in mind: stability, security, and simplicity. We moved them to Pantheon, and testing proved the site was fully capable of handling traffic in excess of five times their historical peaks. To protect against increasingly common and sophisticated attacks, the site’s infrastructure provides powerful protections. As a result, the SPLC team can focus their energy on the important work they do rather than managing critical infrastructure.
In the end, the new SPLC flagship site is not simply streamlined, beautiful, and performant, it’s effective in furthering the mission of the SPLC by helping them tell the powerful stories we all need to hear. Since the site launched, traffic has increased more than 370%. Visitors are staying longer and becoming more deeply engaged with the SPLC, supporting a mission that remains as important now as at any time in their history.
