Workplaces Respond: A Featured Case Study

Wide Eye
Wide Eye
Jul 25, 2017 · 7 min read

Workplaces Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence: A National Resource Center (Workplaces Respond) educates and builds collaborations among workplace and non-workplace stakeholders — employers, worker associations, unions, and anti-violence advocates — to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, stalking, and exploitation impacting the workplace. The project is a public-private partnership led by Futures Without Violence, and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

OVERVIEW

We had the honor of collaborating with Workplaces Respond to Domestic and Sexual Violence to overhaul their national resource center, empowering employers, survivors, and advocates with guides, trainings, and tools.

THE CHALLENGE

Workplaces’ old website was difficult to navigate, extremely text heavy, confusing for new users, and not mobile friendly. The talented team at Workplaces Respond had produced a ton of really rich content, but it was buried under a confusing navigation and felt stale.

Our main challenges were clearly defining Workplaces’ core audiences and establishing a taxonomy for the content — including resources like fact sheets and guides, educational and training materials, and workplace tools. In addition to creating a resource center, the team needed help demonstrating how their resources could be used in a more holistic approach to shift workplace culture.

We also knew we wanted to design and develop beautiful, modular elements that would help Workplaces bring their content to life and be adaptable for different types of trainings and resources. With modular design in mind, we selected Wordpress as the Content Management System for this project because of its robust flexibility and ability to build out modular templates that the Workplaces team would be able to customize and scale over time.

Defining key audiences and taxonomy


Our main goal during the discovery phase of the project was to work the Workplaces team to define the core audiences of the site, and establish a taxonomy for their resource library. With a defined audience, we could establish a clear architecture for the new site that would be clear to any user that landed on the Workplaces website.

In addition to a defined audience, it was imperative that a user could easily navigate to the resource center and quickly access resources specific to their needs. We worked with the Workplaces team to establish a taxonomy that would work for their content and resources — content and resources such as fact sheets and guides, educational and training materials, and workplace tools.

With a completed site map and taxonomy for the new site, we began our process to build an elegant and user-friendly solution that not only speaks to Workplaces’ mission statement, but feels professional and inclusive.

A Fresh Brand


It was important that we give Workplace’s brand an update to be more vibrant and inclusive of all of their audiences. With an updated color palette and refreshed branding, it was full steam ahead to bring their home page to life.

Unlike their previous site, Workplaces’ mission statement needed to be immediately clear when a reader of any category landed on their website. In addition to a clear mission statement, it was imperative that a user could easily navigate to the resource center and quickly access resources specific to their needs.

With those items in mind, we began our process to build an elegant and user-friendly solution for a home page that not only spoke to Workplace’s mission statement, but felt inclusive for all audiences to explore Workplace’s resources, case studies and personal stories.

Custom Illustrations & Iconography


To help bring the site to life and make it even easier for audiences to navigate the site, we designed custom illustrations, icons, and tooltips with each of Workplaces’ unique audiences in mind. We also created custom iconography for each type of resource: Fact Sheets & Guides, Education and Training, and Workplace Tools. The illustrations are carried throughout the site to make the site more user-friendly and engaging.

Quick Access to Resources


With the focus of the website on the national resource center, it was important for audiences to easily access resources from anywhere on the site. With that in mind, we designed and developed an elegant dropdown menu for the resource library.

A user can easily access resources as an employer, survivor or co-worker, or as an advocate — no matter where they are on the site. In addition to quick access for the most popular resources, a user can easily navigate to any type of resource via the dropdown menu as well.

A Robust Resource Library


Resources on the old site were stale and text-heavy. One of our main goals for the project was to make these resources more interactive and engaging for users to improve learning and retention. For the resources themselves, we designed and built modular options so the Workplaces’ team could build and customize each resource to their needs.

In addition to the robust filter capabilities of the resource library, we added “Quick Links” to make it easy for users to find the most frequently sought-out resources on the site. “Quick Links,” as a global element, can be added to any page on the site for a user to quickly click to learn more about popular resources.


On individual resource pages, we added things like tooltips, call out boxes, full-width images and videos, and modules to feature related resources to help bring the content to life.

For example, the tooltips empowered the Workplaces’ team to add definitions and external links to terms and tips within resources like the Model Workplace Policy. With this added feature, a user can hover over any highlighted terms, which reveals a small pop-up with supplemental content.

Interactive Quizzes


The Workplaces’ team has also developed real-life workplace scenarios to help provide learning and training. We added an interactive quiz feature that can be used to train users on issues of workplace violence, and to guide users to relevant resources to learn more.

Each quiz is completely editable with the ability to add custom questions and answers. In addition to questions and answers, depending on the answer selected by the user, the Workplaces team can set a custom correct and incorrect screen for each question with relevant information and resources.

Interactive Fact Sheet


The Workplaces team had done extensive research on domestic and sexual violence, and its impact on workers and workplaces. The research and stats they had collected were static on their old site, as a long list of facts. We worked with the Workplaces team to identify the most compelling facts on the topic and designed and developed an animated facts section of the site that better illustrated that content and leveraged it to drive users to related resources on the site.

Users scroll through animated facts related to violence and workers, while relevant resources are revealed along side those facts. At Wide Eye Creative, we always have future scalability in mind, so the Workplaces team is able to swap out new resources as they are developed.

Case Studies & Stories of Strength


One thing that was missing from the old website was better explaining how violence outside of the workplace can impact employees and workplaces, and what employers and colleagues can do to combat it. The Workplaces team had collected some real-world stories, but they were buried on the old website. We worked with the team to repurpose case studies and stories to help demonstrate both the complex issues they are working on and how workplaces can take a holistic approach at solving the problem.

THE RESULTS

Keeping future scalability in mind, we leveraged Wordpress as the Content Management System for the site to empower the Workplaces team to edit, customize, and grow the resource center out in the future.

Together with the Workplaces Respond team, we successfully launched the brand new National Resource Center this past May. With the new design, the Workplaces team can now more effectively reach and empower their audiences, communicate their mission and resources, and foster learning and positive change for employers, survivors, and advocates around the country.

Wide Eye

Written by

Wide Eye

We are a purpose-driven creative digital agency that empowers organizations, campaigns, and causes. Headquartered in Washington D.C. @WideEyeCo

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