Website Redesign Inspires & Engages Tech Community

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Case Study: Thorn

The nonprofit website design for Thorn needed to humanize the issue of digital abuse, and appeal to individuals with a technical skill set who could partner as an individual, agency or company to support their mission of defending children. We worked collaboratively across every internal department to hone their messaging, and create a compelling story for their brand. Our strategy for this consisted of three parts:

Revamping the look and feel

Optimizing website functionality

Focusing on key communication points

VISIT SITE

In the 60 days following the relaunch, Thorn saw a marked increase in on-site engagement.

300

Employment Inquiries

11%

Conversion Rate

30%

Increase In Web Traffic

It is hard to find partners who adopt your brand and truly make it their own, but we have found it with Media Cause. They think like core owners of the Thorn mission and deliver incredible work as a result.

Julie Cordua, CEO, Thorn

Strategy

Discovery & Analysis

Before we can achieve a client’s goals, we need to know the lay of the land. Our discovery process allows us to assess existing efforts, successes, and opportunities before we dive in.

Captivating Words & Images

Powerful work deserves powerful communications. Copywriting, infographics, email headers, landing pages–the list goes on–all help you move communities toward organizational goals.

User Experience

If all of the details come together perfectly, a user feels taken care of. Promoting trust and inspiring action from the smallest detail to the biggest message moves missions.

Implementation

Discovery & Analysis
Through the website redesign process, we sought to incorporate new content, reframe existing content, and add new elements to bring www.wearethorn.org up to date with the mission of the organization. We also sought to keep their main goal of acquiring new partners at the forefront of every page on the site.
As with any website redesign process, we worked to keep the client focused on their goals, intertwining it into every aspect of the storytelling process and ensuring we had the tools in place to measure progress.
Captivating words & images
The underlying theme in our website redesign efforts for Thorn was to make the organization more approachable overall, adding in more human elements and lightening the look and feel across the site. With their focus on tech, we also wanted to bring in some modern elements, adding movement through video as well as other custom elements.
User Experience
In collaborating with the Thorn team on the best way to communicate their organization’s story, we concentrated on four key elements:
- What we do – Partner and build innovative technologies.
- Why we do what we do – To stop the exploitation of children.
- How well we do what we’re doing – Project/past work examples.
- Why you should be a part of this – Share your expertise, innovate, protect children.
If someone hears about Thorn, we want them to immediately understand what the organization does, why they do it, and that they do it well. Further, if they have talent to lend, we wanted to provide an easy way for them to communicate their interest in becoming part of Thorn’s various programs. In order to further vet individuals interested in getting involved with the organization, we added a preliminary survey in an effort to get the most relevant parties in the hands of program managers at Thorn who are looking for new talent.

Results

Storytelling is key.

Our digital process allowed us to redesign a website for Thorn that not only told the right story, but told it to the right people and got them excited about it. We were also able to make their new website a tool for programatic goals, providing clear avenues for interested parties to get involved.