I proposed a new website (pictured above) for Love A Child, Inc. that I built in Word Press using the Divi Theme and its built-in Page Builder. The theme is responsive and provided an excellent mobile device viewing experience. The site's redesign represents a significant departure from their current site's dominant grunge graphic look and feel (pictured below). My new home page also uses story-telling as its main tool to engage the audience and tells them in a compelling way of the dire conditions and every day suffering that Haitians face especially their children who are the most vulnerable. Note: This redesigned site came to be largely as a result of extensive research on marketing and promoting non-profit organizations. In particular I spent much time researching creative copywriting and story-telling. The final result is shown in this portfolio project.
Current Love A Child website as of October 25, 2015 (www.loveachild.com).
Presenting problems:
(1) Relies too heavy on grunge look and feel. (2) Some chunky graphics hard to read on mobile devices. (3) Home page targets mostly repeat visitors rather than targeting new potential donors and partners. (4) Home page sliders distract and reduce emotional impact of content. (5) Home page copy does not effectively communicate the plight of the poor in Haiti in a way that compels the audience. (6) Home page copy is largely informative, not evocative or emotive. (7) About Us page copy tells very little about the organization; it’s dry and perfunctory instead of inspiring and passionate.
My design rationale: Replaced grunge graphics with modern, clean, pleasant look and feel that would look great on a desktop monitor as well as a mobile device. The grunge themes reflected the conditions that Love A Child “finds” in Haiti - roughness, cracked, crumbling, torn, burned edges, dirt, rocks, and similar textures. I believed the website’s theme should reflect what Love A Child “brings” to Haiti - love, hope, joy, happiness. Despite the dire situations and hopeless conditions, Love A Child brings hope to the poorest of the poor in Haiti, especially to children who are the most vulnerable. This change in perspective - from what they find to what they bring - resulted in a pretty significant website redesign on every page and in the website copy for the Home and About Us pages. I believe this shift in perspective is the greatest contribution I brought to the Love A Child website project. This comp was used to present my design and copywriting suggestions only.
My copywriting rationale: The new website copy begins with the story of Moses. Love A Child tagline “Love is something you do” and Moses’ smiling picture accompany the new website copy. I wanted the home page intro to be fundamentally different than Love A Child's current's home page which is largely informative but lacks emotion and passion. Telling the audience that Haitians are poor and are struggling wasn't sufficient to me as I critiqued the current Love A Child home page. I wrote copy and included images with short stories that demonstrate the dire conditions. This combination was designed to arouse emotion and reach people's hearts. In case you can't read the copy in the screen shot, here is how it reads:
"Imagine a mother giving birth to her son in an outhouse, dropping him down, and leaving him there – alone. In Haiti, parents don’t always have the means to care for and feed all of their children. Some are abandoned and left to die. Fortunately, this newborn was rescued and today Moses lives in our orphanage and receives nutritious meals, a strong education and professional medical care – all in a loving, caring and safe environment."
The story of Betchina tells of the desperate measures Haitian families take in order to survive. Website copy for this section reads as follows: "Pictured below is 9-year old Betchina who helps makes “mud cookies” so that she and others can cope with the pain of hunger and stay alive in Haiti. It begins in a dark, dangerous underground cave where tunnel walls are chipped away and dirt rocks are hoisted up in a bucket and brought to the surface. The rocks are slowly broken down by hand, mixed with water and repeatedly sifted until a smooth, liquidy mud is created. Next a little butter and salt are added before the mix is formed into cookies to bake in the unforgiving Haitian sun. For Betchina and others, the misery of hunger can lead one to desperate measures."
The story of Rosemitha tells of the hopelessness and hardship children face every day in Haiti. The website copy reads as follows: "Below is Rosemitha, one of eight children in her family living in a remote village in Haiti. Instead of attending school Rosemitha works hard daily to help her family. She walks to a nearby stagnant pond and carries back water that contains amoebas and parasites. With it she washes dirty dishes and clothes. With arms aching she uses a heavy stick and grinds meal inside a hollowed out tree trunk. One day at the pond she finds an old book on the water’s edge. Though she can’t read, she takes it home and at night looks at the tattered pages by candlelight before she lies down on her straw mat. She dreams of a day she can go to school and learn how to read and write.
Love A Child's current About Us copy is way too brief, does not tell much about the organization, and lacks inspiration. An organization's About Us page is one of the most frequently visited, especially a non-profit organization who is attempting to attract potential donors and partners. I believed new copy was needed to fulfill this most vital purpose. In my redesigned site, the main About Us copy reads as follows:
At Love A Child, we firmly believe love is something you do.
Talking about God’s love isn’t enough. We take the next step. We go. We do. We act. We give. To us, love isn’t stationary. It moves and reaches out to a hurting child, embraces them, and meets their deepest needs.
We believe Haiti is our neighbor.
When Jesus said to love your neighbor, we don’t see a footnote about national borders. To us, the Gospel doesn’t have an “us” and “them”. An either-or. The Creole proverb that says, “The child crying outside the home is the same as the child crying inside the home” is the kind of worldview that energizes us to serve the poorest of the poor in Haiti.
Every day we do something about the suffering in Haiti.
Haiti is a land of indescribable poverty, hunger, and desperation. Sadly, their children are the most vulnerable caught in these dreadful conditions. Our mission is to alleviate their suffering, extend compassion, love unconditionally, and put hope back in their eyes.
Our vision statement is simple.
We see a future where all impoverished children in Haiti are fed, clothed, educated and healthy so that they have a hopeful tomorrow where they can come to know a loving and generous God.
Our vision compels us to serve the poor in Haiti – in every way possible.
We provide food for the hungry, medical care for the sick, orphan care for the abandoned or unwanted, sponsorship and education for the needy, and sustainability programs to give people jobs and a promising future.
We’re an organization of like-minded individuals.
We admit it – we think the same at Love A Child. When it comes to children living in impoverished conditions in Haiti, our staff, employees and volunteers all believe in helping these children and giving them something to live for. Whether we’re behind a desk in our corporate office, in front of a class of Haitian students, or alongside a needy Haitian family, we strive to demonstrate that “Love is something you do.”
Our founders, missionaries Bobby and Sherry Burnette, set the pace.
Believe us, it’s hard to keep up with them. Since their full-time move to Haiti in 1991, they have been tirelessly ministering every day to the poorest of the poor, often in hard-to-reach mountaintop villages they refer to as the “regions beyond.” Their story is worth hearing.
