Transforming the online experience for a global change-maker

Practical Action is an innovative international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world. As well as beneficiaries, their audiences include governments, media, donors, the private sector and a huge range of partner organisations.

Practical Action needed to transform its online experience to appeal to a new generation of donors who expect a slick online experience and powerful stories of innovation, compassion, and change. We were tasked with understanding the needs and motivations of the diverse audience, planning seamless user experiences, and integrating the site with thousands of digital assets.

We took a Design Thinking approach to understand the audience's needs by conducting extensive workshops and video conferencing sessions with representatives from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Peru, Bolivia, Kenya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

We even had two stakeholders calling in from the heart of the Amazon.  The insight gathered was used to create an extensive audience segmentation report, which informed the development of the site. Task modeling was used to plan seamless user experiences by defining functionality, navigation, and content from a user-first perspective. 

The site was built on WordPress, with a simplified UX and immersive storytelling experience that appealed to a new generation of donors. We also built a custom plug-in to integrate the site with Practical Action's digital asset library, giving access to tens of thousands of images and videos.

The new website had a significant impact on Practical Action's online presence. The site's immersive storytelling experience and simplified UX appealed to a new generation of supporters, leading to an increase in donations. The custom plug-in we built to integrate the site with Practical Action's digital asset library gave access to an enormous archive of rich content, making it easier for webmasters to manage the site's content.