Inclusivity truly lies at the heart of our mission-driven partners. So at Forum One, we don’t have to do a lot of convincing about the importance of accessibility, but there are still a lot of questions about how best to build digital experiences that welcome and respect all users. There are great strategies you can employ to ensure that the designs you put out in the world are inclusive.

Accessibility lessons from a lifeguard

Growing up in the Pocono Mountains, I had the luxury of learning to swim in a river. As a kid, the lifeguards on the river that kept us safe were like superheroes. When I became a teenager, I joined a team of lifeguards who patrolled a beach in the Delaware Water Gap.

Lifeguarding is the ultimate team sport because of the implied consequences—your goal is to make sure everyone can safely and equitably enjoy the water. Our beach was commonly frequented by folks of all ages with varying levels of swimming skills. And though the beach area of the river was roped off to a certain area, there were still undercurrents and weather patterns to consider. With all of these potential implications to safety, there was a huge need to not only uphold the many important rules and regulations, but to do our best to explain the need for them. Add to that—you have to make sure everyone understands what to do with the quick sounding of a whistle and hand gestures.

In lifeguarding and in design, accessibility is not just a legal requirement—it’s a moral imperative. In both, teams must work together, designers and internal stakeholders alike, to ensure that all audiences can easily understand how to engage in the inclusive environment. And doing this right ensures that audiences trust that you’ll take care of them and support them in their experience of whatever you design – a safe swimming environment or a digital product.

Credibility Through Inclusive Design

Prioritizing accessibility not only demonstrates your organization’s commitment to inclusivity but also expands your reach and impact by making your mission accessible to a wider audience.

Follow Accessibility Guidelines

Lifeguards live to follow and enforce the rules. Similarly, it’s imperative that your teams familiarize themselves with established accessibility guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These are the comprehensive standards for making digital content accessible to users with disabilities.

When I was working in-house at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we leaned on an external accessibility partner to help us train our internal teams on best practices. It made all the difference in creating consensus for accessible website designs but it also eventually extended into increasing the accessibility of PDF materials, which many organizations grapple with. Sometimes all it takes is an outside voice to help push these types of initiatives forward.

Regular Accessibility Audits

Our job each and every day as a lifeguard was to ensure that we checked our equipment and the site before we opened it for the day. Conducting regular accessibility audits and usability testing to identify and address any accessibility issues. Getting feedback from users with disabilities will ensure that your designs meet their needs effectively.

Responsive Design

When you’re working on the river or at a pool, you have to consider the needs of folks with a range of skills and familiarity with your environment. Similarly, you can expect users to have a wide variety of needs when interacting with your digital product. Ensuring that your digital platforms are optimized for mobile devices will accommodate the needs of those who prefer to engage on any device. A responsive design ensures a consistent and enjoyable experience across all devices, which increases engagement and accessibility.

Color Contrast

It’s important to take your shades off to see clearly as a lifeguard. Similarly, running color contrast tests will ensure that volks with low vision or color blindness are able to see the content you’ve worked so hard to get them to engage with. Ensuring sufficient color contrast between text and the background elements in your experiences will improve that readability. WCAG provides specific guidelines for color contrast ratios that should be adhered to.

For example, Forum One worked with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) BioInteractive team to create a user-friendly and engaging digital hub for educational resources, interactive applications, lesson plans, workshops, videos, news articles, and more to help 40,000 science educators around the world connect students with inspiring ideas in biology and increase engagement with the sciences.  

Our team ran color contrasts at the beginning of the project to determine what color combinations would follow the guidelines. These were then pulled into the final style guide to ensure understanding and adherence going forward.

Accessible Forms

It’s also important to consider accessibility for things that are seemingly as mundane as forms. Use clear labels and fieldsets, provide instructions and error messages in a way that is accessible to all users, including those using screen readers or assistive technologies.

Provide Alternative Text

Make sure that any content you’re creating has descriptive alternative text. Just as some signage at swim areas can be tough to decipher if it only has icons on it, we want to make sure we’re supporting web imagery with text which can be read. This goes for images, icons, and non-text content. Alternative text provides that essential context for users who cannot see images, ensuring they can understand the content.This is the final post in a four-part series, Building Trust and Credibility Through Design. If you missed any of the previous parts, read back through or watch the webinar that introduced these topics.

The change, though not a surprise, raises concerns about potential drops in search traffic–if Google starts “doing the Googling for you” will traffic to websites plummet? Moreover, the question we’ve received from several clients and friends is, What should we do about it?

First, don’t panic

Google says that they are focused on “sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators” and we haven’t seen huge drops in traffic to clients’ websites overnight. They’ve also had to adjust and slow down the rollout. It may be too soon to tell, and in fact, the changes could be good for our mission-driven organizations with nuanced and complicated stories to tell. 

But, brace for change in your SEO strategy

The more people build the muscle of going to Google and getting an answer without having to click through, the more we may see the impact on search traffic. This user behavior began even before AI Overviews. A 2022 study by Semrush found that more than half of users didn’t leave Google after conducting a search. AI answers may become more prevalent and over time may have longer-term impacts.  

Tell your story, or AI will do it for you

It’s critical that you deliver your messages with high-quality content across channels. Google’s AI Overviews will only be as good as the data that trains it, and the more you can develop high-quality content, the better Google’s AI model will be able to articulate your issues, stories, and brand. In fact, the AI needs you to deliver more! Additional high-quality data is required for models to keep advancing, and research institute Epoch AI has estimated that AI companies could confront a shortage of high-quality textual training data as early as 2026. 

Further, even as we may see some larger impacts on traffic, people still don’t fully trust AI to give them what they need – especially on important issues like education, health, or equity. Those who are seeking valuable information will look to sources with authority, most especially our mission-driven organizations and leaders. 

Focus on building one-to-one relationships beyond your website

This change in Google represents a significant shift in how visitors are pulled into websites. As our clients and partners experience this shift, it will become more important to cultivate individual relationships through email, social, and other platforms. People will also be seeking out trusted voices as more and more content becomes driven by AI, and to break through that noise, you’ll need to have direct access. 

(Arlington, VA) – Digital agency Forum One has appointed Colin Stewart as its new Chief Growth Officer (CGO). Stewart brings over two decades of experience developing and executing revenue growth strategies, building client relationships, and leading profitable teams. His background spans nonprofit, corporate, and government clients intersecting marketing, technology, and service delivery. 

Before joining Forum One, Stewart served as Executive Director of Launch by NTT DATA, where he spearheaded a team that helped mission-driven organizations and major brands build provocative digital experiences that drove audience action. With previous leadership roles at Blue State and Merkle’s nonprofit practice, Stewart has played a key role in winning business and catalyzing effective growth. 

“We apply our passion to support clients addressing the most critical global issues,” said Forum One CEO Elisabeth Bradley. “Colin brings decades of experience applying digital expertise and experience to help nonprofit and government clients solve problems. I’m thrilled he’ll be sharing that expertise with our team and clients.”

Forum One was founded in 1996 on the idea that the Internet could bring people together to collaboratively solve the world’s most pressing challenges.  Long-term relationships with major mission-driven organizations and government agencies such as the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Red Cross, and the Environmental Protection Agency have brought Forum One’s vision to life over the past 28 years. Forum One has completed thousands of projects advancing health, education, the environment, and other global issues. 

Stewart’s strategic leadership position involves close collaboration with the CEO and executive team to drive organizational growth and success. The CGO helps ensure that Forum One is positioned to thrive in a rapidly changing marketplace.

“I’m thrilled by the opportunity to help mission-driven organizations and government agencies thrive in a time of tremendous technology change,” said Stewart. “In a world of AI chatbots and Chat-GPT-driven marketing copy, our clients must blend innovation with authenticity in digital experiences. Achieving this balance and fostering trust fuels my passion for this work.”

About Forum One

Forum One amplifies the impact of mission-driven organizations through transformational digital solutions. The digital consultancy works with nonprofits, associations, foundations, think tanks, cultural institutions, and government agencies all over the world to understand their challenges and implement forward-looking, effective solutions that have an impact. 

Media Contact

Christina Crawley, Managing Director, Marketing

ccrawley@forumone.com 703.894.4386

Fostering ongoing engagement is essential for building a community of passionate supporters and advocates. After understanding audience needs and employing design tools that build credibility and trust, let’s explore how design can maintain engagement and develop a sense of community and loyalty among your audience.

Think like a musician

Those who have played music in a band or orchestra or sang in a choir understand the profound impact of an engaged and participatory audience. Musicians feed off the responses of their audiences, and this can make or break a performance. As someone who participated in band, chorus, and musical theater growing up, I can attest to the impact of that participation. 

In turn, audiences, once they’re engaged and trust in the performers to deliver the experiences they signed up for, are converted into fans. Fans continue to not only buy tickets and go to concerts, but they’re spreading the word: telling everyone else about how awesome that band or performer was.

Similar to performances, designs weave stories. So how do we ensure that the end users turn into those fans who come back to re-engage with your products, time and again?

Design Strategies for Long-Term Trust

One powerful strategy is to create immersive and interactive experiences that invite participation and collaboration. From engaging social media campaigns to interactive website features, every touchpoint should provide value and foster a sense of belonging.

User-Centric Design

One thing that a good band gets is the need to make the experience for their audiences easy and fun at the same time. Design your digital platforms with the same user experience in mind. Ensuring that your user interface navigation is intuitive, that your content is easily accessible, and that interacting with your products are seamless will go a long way in encouraging visitors to explore more and engage with your organization.

For example, Forum One worked with the Oregon Zoo to redesign their site as part of a strategic effort to deliver an inspiring guest experience and better convey the Zoo’s offerings and impact. The Zoo needed their site’s design to incorporate their new brand while also focusing on the mobile experience that many of their visitors rely on to plan their trips and navigate their journeys. We worked with the Zoo team to build an accessible, multilingual, and mobile-first digital experience. We balanced this responsive design with delightful interactive features like load animations, hover effects, and striking photography to highlight the Zoo’s impact. Starting with a focus on creating a user-friendly interface made all the difference.

Regular Updates and Fresh Content

Just as new releases engage music fans, you can design for your experiences to support fresh and relevant content. New information, stories, and updates about your mission and activities will encourage repeat visits and ongoing engagement from your audience.

Interactive Content

Designing your experiences to be interactive will make them feel more engaging and dynamic. Like a good ask-me-anything session with your favorite artist, these bits of interactivity boost engagement. Consider adding interactive elements like quizzes, polls, and interactive infographics into your content. These types of features encourage your audience to actively participate, keeping them engaged and invested in your mission.

Of course, these should be aligned with your goals and mission. They should be balanced with the rest of your content overall. So if you’re a smaller non-profit, you may only need to consider focusing the interactivity on your site into one or two areas. Look at data to understand where folks tend to interact most to see if you can enhance that experience and increase engagement by adding interactivity.

Compelling Visual Storytelling

Use visual storytelling techniques to communicate your mission and impact effectively. Compelling imagery, videos, and animations can evoke emotions and inspire action, keeping your audience connected to your cause.

Forum One recently partnered with the Smithsonian Institution to develop an immersive, multimedia storytelling experience, narrated by actress Rosario Dawson, that focused on highlighting women’s contributions to history which are often missing from America’s historical record. 

The first challenge we encountered was how to tell a visual story about missing content without accompanying assets. Our team created original illustrations and crafted a digital storytelling approach featuring immersive scrolling animations accompanied by audio and curator interviews to bring these stories to life. 

Assessing the access to assets early on in the project helped us understand the focus for creating new illustrations and animations later on. These were key to creating that immersive experience.

Personalization

Consider tailoring your content and messaging to meet the interests and preferences of your audience. You can also use data analytics and user segmentation to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with individuals on a deeper level.

Next: The final part of our design series focuses on accessibility–after all your work to design products that are responsive to audience needs, build trust and engagement, you want to ensure you’ve created digital experiences that welcome and respect all users.  

“Our partners hire Forum One for our expertise—in design, technology, strategy, and more,” said Elisabeth Bradley, Forum One’s CEO. “But they also hire us for the way that we work. Excellent delivery ensures that our project teams are good stewards of our clients’ investments, and always focused on achieving the desired impact. Under Molly’s leadership, I am certain that our methodology will evolve to further empower our clients to make a greater impact in the world.”

To achieve this value, Molly works closely with the project management team and leads the development of services that strengthen Forum One’s project delivery, including quality assurance, accessibility, and content migration services. 

Prior to this role, Molly served as Managing Director of Project Delivery. She has held several roles at Forum One since first joining the company as a senior project manager in 2014. Her early experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali strengthened her resolve to continue to work for organizations that provide meaningful impact in people’s lives. At Forum One, a career highlight was working as part of the team that redesigned the Peace Corps website. 

“I’m proud to work on things that matter. Thinking deeply about the Peace Corps mission, or the science at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History–another highlight of my work at Forum One–and translating those experiences online, really drives home how special it is to build products that become a pivotal part of people’s lives. At Forum One, we’re all driven by helping mission-driven teams get better at what they do.” said Molly.

In 2022, Molly was named among the Top 50 Women Leaders in Virginia for her work at Forum One. She holds an MA in Communication with a concentration in corporate and nonprofit communications from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Psychology from Wellesley College.

Once you’ve begun to understand your audiences needs, the next step is to start communicating trust effectively. Trust is the bedrock of any mission-driven organization, and effective communication is key to building and maintaining that trust. So how can the products we design help convey reliability, transparency, and integrity to the folks who will use them in the end?

Instilling deep trust: A lesson from climbing

When I first started indoor rock climbing, I was extremely skeptical of anyone that was belaying, or supporting me, as I climbed up a 60 ft wall. These people are holding your very lives in their hands—you have to be able to trust them with it. You typically think of rock climbing as more of a solo sport, but it’s really based on the trust in a partnership and the support of a wider community of climbers. 

While I’m still very much an amateur, even I am keenly aware of how important it is to have your gear set up correctly before any action happens. Once you’ve established trust with your partner through this safe foundation, your communications to your climbing partner then have to be clear, short, (and sometimes loud) to make sure you’re accurately conveying the message. You establish credibility when you then, in turn, listen carefully to make sure that they’ve understood and are ready to get started. 

In design, the biggest mistake I’ve seen teams make is to only allow the product to communicate in one direction. How can you truly know that something resonates with your audiences if they can’t tell you anything about it? And are you paying attention to all the right cues?

Techniques that Create Credibility

Clarity, authenticity, and inclusivity are essential for communicating trust effectively. Here are some techniques that we like to use:

Feedback Loops

Designing feedback mechanisms encourages open communication with audiences. When climbing, you have to both give and get verbal confirmation to start climbing. Actively listening to feedback about your designs and responding transparently demonstrates that willingness to engage and improve, which strengthens trust over time.

Contact forms and comment sections are great ways of designing features that will get you key info to improve your designs over time. And your users will appreciate that you’ve done it.

Clear and Consistent Branding

Consistency in your design elements such as logos, color schemes, and typography creates a cohesive brand identity. On a rock climbing wall, you can expect consistent patterns in the color theme or type of hold you’re using to go up a certain path. Similarly, in design, a consistent visual identity across all of your communication channels then instills confidence and reliability in your organization.

If you’re about to or have just undergone a brand refresh or rebranding, now is the time to think about establishing a design system! These are like the digital extension of your typical print-focused brand guidelines. A design system should be scalable based on your needs as an organization to support consistent branding across your channels.

Transparent Information Architecture

Much like climbers need to clearly mark their routes to understand how to ascend a wall, thoughtful design of information architecture can ensure that the content you add to your experience is organized in a logical and easily navigable manner. Clear navigation paths and intuitive user interfaces make it easy for audiences to find information, which promotes transparency and trust.

For example, Forum One recently worked with partners on an update to the website for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The site was outdated in appearance and did not effectively portray the agency’s mission and resources, After reviewing their content, we noticed that there was also a lot of outdated and underused content across the site, as well as valuable material in unexpected locations. Together, we worked to organize key content into major topical areas, each of which aggregates tools, resources, and other content types on that area. The redesign also created a resources and tools library for quick access to the most important material to address security issues.

Honest Visual Communication

Just like a route map for a climber, visual elements such as imagery, icons, and infographics can be used to communicate complex ideas and information in a clear and honest manner. Avoiding misleading or manipulative visuals reinforces the organization’s integrity.

For example, we recently partnered with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank Studios to support the launch of their new “Wild Hope” video production, which highlights the heroes and successes, small and large, of biodiversity preservation.

Throughout the mobile-responsive WordPress site, we’ve peppered in imagery and icons that reinforce the mission of the brand itself. We worked closely with our clients to ensure that the images utilized across the site supported the mission of the series.

Authentic Storytelling

Design can be a great tool to tell authentic stories that resonate with your audiences on an emotional level. By incorporating real-life examples, stories, testimonials, and even user-generated content, you can humanize the organization and then build trust through those genuine connections. Climbers love a good recounting of their awesome ascents! And if you’ve seen any of the Netflix documentaries about outdoor climbing, you’ll notice how intriguing a topic like this can be to even a newcomer. Use that real-life hook in your designs.

Data Visualization

Charts, graphs, and interactive dashboards are an accessible way to present data and statistics visually, which in turn, enhances transparency and credibility in your organization. Clear and visually engaging data visualization allows audiences to understand complex information more easily which fosters trust in your organization’s expertise.

The team at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health came to us a few years ago with an idea: to provide a broad set of health metrics for the largest US cities to policymakers and community leaders to help solve intractable health issues.

We launched City Health Dashboard in 2018 and have been developing and expanding on the concept since then. 

The core of the site is the ability to see relative performance on the metric against both national averages, other cities, and between neighborhoods in cities. Scale charts and maps provide that visual representation that helps audiences engage and establish credibility.

The NYU team has used these visual tools to support educational presentations and consulting projects, engaging larger numbers of constituents in this complex data than might be difficult otherwise.

Next: After working to understand user needs and communicate trust, the next part in our series explores strategies for maintaining engagement through design, to foster a sense of community and loyalty among your audience.

The Vega Awards acknowledge those who create and continually expand the digital universe. Organized by the International Awards Association (IAA), the awards recognize and honor the outstanding performance, talent, and effort of the best digital and creative professionals worldwide.

Forum One’s 11 awards included two platinum, five gold, and four silver awards across focus areas, including cultural institutions, health and wellness, environmental awareness, and government. These awards honored Forum One’s work in building websites, digital tools, and virtual experiences for our clients.

Oregon Zoo

Platinum – Website & Mobile Sites – Cultural

Based in Portland, the Oregon Zoo is a prominent regional institution that receives around 1.5 million annual visits and helps protect more than 20 endangered and threatened species.

Forum One worked with the Oregon Zoo to redesign its website as part of its strategic efforts to deliver an inspiring guest experience and better convey its offerings and impact.

The end result is accessible, multilingual, and mobile-first digital experience. Design choices also include delightful interactive features, such as load animations and hover effects, and striking photography to highlight the Zoo’s impact.

Wild Hope

Platinum – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

Wild Hope is a video production that highlights the heroes and successes, small and large, of biodiversity preservation. Forum One collaborated with Tangled Bank Studios to develop a stunning, mobile-responsive, user-friendly website that showcases the documentary series and enhances user interaction and exploration.

The site’s design emphasizes three primary avenues for discovering content: watching the series, exploring additional materials like interviews and lesson plans, and engaging in real-world activities, such as building a native plant garden. 

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Cultural

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) – housing such iconic artifacts as the original Star-Spangled Banner, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” – welcomes approximately 2 million in-person visitors annually. Forum One partnered with the Museum on a full website redesign and upgrade, to welcome more diverse audiences and provide a space to discover our shared American history through a modern, inclusive, and forward-looking digital experience.

Natural Resources Defense Council

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been working since 1970 to safeguard the earth. NRDC combines the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of more than 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.

Forum One worked with NRDC this year to redesign their website. The redesigned website continues to help NRDC deliver on its mission to safeguard the earth for years to come. This work has empowered NRDC’s content managers, further engaged audiences in the mission, and amplified the organization’s impact. 

HHMI BioInteractive Community Platform

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

Forum One worked with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) BioInteractive team to create a user-friendly and engaging collection of educational resources, interactive applications, lesson plans, workshops, videos, news articles, and more to help 40,000 science educators around the world connect students with inspiring ideas in biology and increase engagement with the sciences. 

The new website allows educators to search and explore multimedia resources across topics and formats and assemble them into customized and shareable collections and lesson plans. 

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, uses data to show how where we live matters to our health. 

For the past 11 annual rankings, Forum One has developed responsive, increasingly sophisticated data visualizations and maps that let users explore and compare detailed public health information across more than 65 health factors and outcomes for more than 3,000 counties. Our decade plus relationship is a great example of the impact that can be made when great teams collaborate!

AARP Livability Index

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. Within the organization, the AARP Public Policy Institute maintains the AARP Livability Index, a key tool in their mission to promote the development of sound, creative policies to address common needs for economic security, health care, and quality of life.

Forum One helped the AARP Livability Index meet the needs of its audiences with an easier-to-use website and accessible data that informs consumer and policy decisions nationwide.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Search Tool

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Government

With over 100 federal agencies subject to FOIA requests and hundreds of FOIA offices whose records are not connected, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)  teamed up with Forum One and our partner, Polydelta, to produce an innovative new search tool that prioritizes an enhanced customer experience in order to increase government transparency.

The FOIA Search Tool applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to make it simpler for citizens to navigate the complex FOIA system via a friendly, more conversational interface. Launched in 2023, the DOJ called this search wizard “one of the most significant improvements” to FOIA.gov since 2018.

Congressional District Health Dashboard

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

The new Congressional Health Dashboard provides policymakers and policy advocates with health data to inform policy decisions affecting health outcomes. It provides data for all U.S. congressional districts, expanding the geographic coverage of its sister site, the City Health Dashboard.

Forum One built the site with the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health. 

The site presents data for more than 35 health-related metrics for all U.S. Congressional Districts. Site visitors can browse the data at the national and district level via Metric Maps or review all metric values for individual districts via Congressional District Snapshots.

USAID Digital Development

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Government

Forum One worked with USAID’s Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub to create the brand-new digitaldevelopment.org, a one-stop-shop for resources on digital country ecosystems for USAID missions and partners, researchers, and development practitioners.

International development practitioners require access to up-to-date data, evidence, and resources to understand the dynamic digital ecosystems of the countries where they work. With no centralized place to find this information, these practitioners had been spending more time than necessary trying to find information on their country’s digital ecosystem. 

NMAAHC Simmons Talks

Silver – Virtual / Remote Experience – Arts & Culture

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Simmons Talks series connects audiences with individuals of singular vision, intellect, courage, compassion, and historical and contemporary significance and creates an opportunity for the Museum to connect with its audiences outside of the structure of a visit to the museum. Endowed by Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, the talks named in her honor feature discussions with African American innovators in art, business, science, literature, medicine, social justice, technology, and more.

Forum One partnered with the Museum to develop a visual brand system for the event in addition to visual assets that were used across the Museum’s digital channels and in person at the event. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We’d like to thank our Forum One team members and client partners who work daily to create impact. Each of these projects serves a critical purpose, whether it’s fighting to protect our environment, ensure transparency in our government, solve complex community health problems, and more.

We’d also like to thank our friends at the Vega Awards for the great honor and platform to celebrate so many impactful projects!

Understanding audience needs is the core of good design. For mission-driven organizations in particular, forging deep connections with audiences is paramount. The questions we hear often are about how organizations can identify and adapt designs to meet the evolving needs of their audiences and ensure that the mission resonates deeply. 

While understanding audience needs is the basis of all good strategy and user experience processes, end users often get lost or deprioritized in the design phase. I want to share a few of my favorite techniques for making sure that you’re identifying and adapting to the evolving needs of your audience while designing.

Build internal trust first: A soccer lesson

I wasn’t an amazing soccer player, but I did enjoy playing on soccer teams throughout my childhood. I was always a midfielder, charged with passing the ball to my teammates and knowing where they were at any moment. 

Making sure I got the ball to the right person at the right moment allowed my teammates to trust in me, and the fact that we were able to score goals over and over again built credibility in our collective skills. “Passing the design ball” on projects similarly builds skills amongst team members. And that strategic teamwork translates to efficiency on the other end, building products that audiences want to engage with because they’ve been thoroughly tested and designed.

But how do you build trust like a team? I think that the most powerful design technique is to engage in active listening and empathy-building exercises with your internal stakeholders. By continuing to understand the challenges, desires, and aspirations of your audiences, you can tailor your designs to resonate on a deeper level. Here are some ways to practice that effort:

Active Listening Sessions

I encourage structured listening sessions where team members take turns sharing their thoughts and concerns, while others actively listen without interruption. This fosters a culture of open communication and empathy within the team. Just like a good soccer coach does for their team.

While I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art working on a website redesign, we recognized the need to be transparent with our internal audiences and started hosting a series of monthly open forum presentations called “Website Wednesdays.” All museum employees were welcome to join and ask questions, many of which led to important design conversations later on.

Collaborative Brainstorming

Encourage team members to participate in collaborative brainstorming sessions where everyone has an opportunity to contribute ideas and solutions. Create a safe space where all voices are valued and respected. And practice, practice, practice!

Brainstorming together is another great way to get your teams working towards the same goals. For example, a quick “Crazy 8s” exercise only takes a few minutes and allows everyone a safe and open space to ideate. Crazy 8s is a fast-sketching exercise that challenges people to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. You’ll generate more great ideas than you’re able to squeeze into one product.

Role-playing Exercises

Engaging in role-playing exercises allows your team members to take on the perspective of different user personas. This can help them gain insight into the challenges and experiences faced by their audience. And just like soccer, you have to run these drills more than once to be successful!

Personas can be tough to define and get a hold of but with the help of trained consultants, you can leverage them into valuable design tools. 

Building Trust with End Users

Shifting to the other side of the game, getting the trust of your end users is the way to ensure that the designs that you and your teams pour your time and energy into are engaging and continue to be used by audiences past that initial look. Here are methods for approaching user engagement that build and rely on trust:

Surveys and Feedback Forms

Listen to the crowd! Create surveys and feedback forms to gather insights from your external audience. Ask questions about their needs, preferences, pain points, and desired outcomes related to your product or service. These can be simple and quick frameworks—no need to over-engineer them.

For example, if you’re a nonprofit looking to stand up a new initiative for a specific audience, launch a quick, five-question survey on a related section of your website as you’re in the planning phase. Timing these types of feedback with new initiatives can help point your design in the right direction before it’s off the ground, which can save you lots of valuable time and money.

User Testing Sessions

Conducting user testing sessions, where participants interact with your product or prototype, will provide that real-time feedback that is invaluable to informing designs as they’re in progress. This is like that friendly game or scrimmage with another team. You’re going to be able to observe their actions and listen to their verbal feedback to uncover where there’s issues and areas for improvement. Getting this type of feedback from your end users is key to making sure that these experiences really resonate with them. 

For example, a couple years ago, Forum One worked with a prominent think tank that was creating a brand new product using brand new technology. They had nothing more than a general idea for the interface, and only a number of loose assumptions. We used a simple, paper-based sketch to help crystalize their idea into a design, and then built an HTML prototype. We tested that prototype, iterated on it, and tested it again. This prototype and the successful tests helped the organization obtain grant funding to build out the working product.

Focus Groups

Don’t forget to talk to your fans directly! Organize focus groups made of members of your target audience. By facilitating discussions around specific topics or features, you’re allowing participants to share their opinions, experiences, and suggestions to improve and guide those designs.

If you’re a government agency trying to guide the design of a complex feature on your site, just talking with folks may not be enough to get the specific notes you need. Try using creative stimuli like prototypes to provide the context that will get you that invaluable feedback. Paper prototypes and sketches are cost-effective and an easy way to make sure that your focus group understands what you’re trying to design. They can even be done virtually!

Audience Interviews

Pick a few core supporters and schedule interviews with them to delve deeper into their experiences and perceptions. This type of qualitative feedback is user gold! Use a mix of open-ended and probing questions to uncover valuable insights and anecdotes.

Interviews like these can be more time-consuming but being able to dig deeper into a user’s response, asking them relevant questions, is much easier than attempting to parse a moderated response without having access to that interviewee.

The good thing is that if you’re an organization with a limited budget or shortened timeline, you don’t have to conduct a ton of interviews to start to see patterns in the feedback. Even five 30-minute sessions can start to get you the leads you’re looking for. 

Social Media Listening

Lastly, check the socials. Monitor social media channels for mentions and chatter about your brand or industry. Pay close attention to what people are saying and look for common themes or pain points. You can then use this information to inform your design decisions, balanced with the other feedback, of course.

Next: Now that you’ve got good ideas about building trust with internal and external stakeholders, the second part of this series will delve into how to use design tools to convey reliability, transparency, and integrity.

The conversation with the Davey Awards team highlights Corey’s insights into the principles that guide Forum One’s creative process, with a major emphasis on ideation, innovation, and collaboration.

“Our ideation process involves close collaboration,” Corey noted. “We regularly review past work to identify opportunities to improve and innovate. By staying informed on the latest in design and technology, we bring fresh ideas to every project.” This commitment to continuous learning and improvement allows Forum One to evolve its capabilities, expanding from web design to interactive and motion design, and enriching our branding and illustration expertise.

Explore the feature in full: Davey Awards Visionaries: Forum One

Learn more about Corey’s creative process

Dive further into Corey’s creative process by watching his most recent webinar on The Creative Process Behind Designing for Impact. Corey talks us through how he approaches all projects with passion, purpose, and curiosity, and shares award-winning examples from his most recent with the Smithsonian.

After all the work to ensure your new website is accessible and in compliance with Section 508 and WCAG standards, you shift into day-to-day operations, and… things change. Standards shift, old habits take over, and new staff may not understand how to maintain accessibility. 

It takes intention and planning to maintain a website’s level of accessibility as you make content and development updates over time. But with the right effort, you can ensure your accessible site grows even better for your audiences. 

Anticipate barriers to accessibility 

Why is it so difficult to maintain accessibility standards? There are a few common reasons:

• Web managers and content creators fall into old habits. People on your team might be used to putting text over images because for them, it’s an efficient way to highlight information. Even if you’ve explained that this, or any other habit that falls out of compliance, it can be hard for users to change. 

• The new design system has gaps. Your redesign likely standardized new colors, heading and feature styles, and everything else you thought you’d need for content. But, a new feature crops up, and all of a sudden content creators are straying, introducing new colors and styles that haven’t been reviewed and don’t meet standards. 

• Staying static because of “clearance” Conversely, sometimes text or features stay in place too long, with staff feeling that “we can’t change because it’s already gone through clearance.” But this can lead to outdated or unaligned content when standards change. 

Effective accessibility planning

To counter all these barriers, you need a plan: 

• Review and update your design system. Survey your content creators and pressure-test your design system—do you have adequate styles for all your content needs? Where are people “freelancing” and creating new styles or processes that are out of compliance? Adapt your design system to support all user needs. 

• Educate and engage. If you didn’t create design documentation before launch, do it now. Include the rationale for components, so people can understand why the processes and styles are the way they are. Most users will want to support accessibility standards: they may just not know what they are. Explaining “These colors were specifically tested to work for all our audiences” encourages participation more than “This is the color palette.”

• Have an accessibility governance plan. Plan a monitoring and auditing strategy that includes who owns both day-to-day compliance and a more systematic audit, annually or at a pace that makes sense for your team. 
  • Decide if you’ll use ongoing monitoring tools, like SiteImprove, Deque, or others, which have built-in scans for accessible content. 
  • As new content or features are added, ensure updates are being tested for accessibility. Consider who is in charge of code, content, design, and third-party tools that are incorporated into your site.  
  • Create training practices to onboard new staff and content creators, and documentation practices to ensure practices are consistent and verifiable. 
  • Remember to review your governance plan annually too, not just your website content.

Evolve your practices as standards change

Keep in mind that accessibility guidelines and assistive technology will change. What was considered an “accessible” website five years ago would likely not meet the standards today. Build assessment, learning, and flexibility into your planning to respond to the changes ahead. As your work changes, processes will have to change too. 

Don’t go it alone. 

My team and I are here to support you in your quest for improved accessibility. Whether you’re looking to kick off a big redesign or want to check in on how your site is doing since it last launched, we’re here to help. Get in touch below!