By: Alex Day, Marketing/Communications & Database Manager at WNPF
Our mission here at Washington’s National Park Fund is to raise private support to preserve and protect Washington’s cherished national parks. With the support of our community, we fund youth and family experiences, scientific research, and projects that will keep our parks strong and vital now and forever, for everyone. In recent years, we’ve been accomplishing more than ever before. We’ve provided more than $5.5 million to our parks in the last decade while also building their endowments up to $1.7 million.
There’s so much more that we can do.
As we approach a new era of rather focused strategic growth in support for our parks, we recognized that we would need to revamp our website to meet the needs of our supporters and better communicate our vision for our parks. We needed a website that would:
Luckily for Washington’s National Park Fund, we have many friends who share their passions for our national parks in quiet, behind-the-scenes ways… for example, this website. To make it happen, some very generous and talented professionals in our community came together to lend their time and talent to the cause.
The School of Visual Concepts (SVC) is a school for marketing, branding, and design creatives located here in Seattle. SVC offers classes, workshops, and certifications in user experience (UX) and content design/writing for user experience. SVC’s director, Larry Asher, and his team of eager learners took on Washington’s National Park Fund’s website redesign project. Together, they created a new website design in keeping with our mission while offering a much more user-friendly experience for you, our visitors.
When asked what motivated him to support Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks through this project, Larry shared:
“We have a long tradition of partnering with non-profits in order to give our students some invaluable real-world experience while giving our clients some fresh, well-informed thinking. In doing this project with SVC, WNPF join a fairly impressive list of other nonprofits we’ve collaborated with, including KEXP, Bloodworks Northwest, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Museum of History and Industry.
“As a lifelong Washington resident and lover of our state’s national parks, it wasn’t hard for SVC and me personally to get behind this effort. We’re truly grateful for the opportunity WNPF brought to our students.”
We also asked the designers behind the scenes – all of whom are now certifiably experts in the field – to share their inspiration for the redesign:
“When first approached with Washington’s National Park Fund’s site redesign project, what resonated with us was the mission and the passion that exuded as WNPF spoke about their organization and goals for the future. Our three-person team decided to take this on as a collaborative effort as we felt our combined experiences, interests, and skillsets could effectively create the site we envisioned for WNPF.
Our team consists of Ada, who has a seasoned eye for 1) visual branding, 2) finding the spirit of a project, and 3) accentuating it in a fun and meaningful way; Delany, who leverages research and data to present users with thoughtful experiences that provide context and clarity to encourage conversion; and Hannah, who uses her visual design know-how and keen focus on usability to find the sweet spot between aesthetics and functionality.
With no shortage of inspiration and ideas oozing from the national parks, we worked together to distill our thoughts down to a list of keywords that we used to guide us in our redesign:
Community + Homegrown + Inspirational + Vibrant + Adventure + Discovery + Genuine
It was important to us that we convey these concepts through all aspects of the site. Be it the playful illustrations on the home page or the experience an individual has in making their very first donation, we wanted every guest of the site to understand the mission, vision and values of Washington’s National Park Fund.
We wanted everyone to feel the same passion we felt in that very first meeting. Together, we know that supporting our parks today means supporting our community for generations to come.”
At Washington’s National Park Fund, we think they accomplished their goals – don’t you? We couldn’t be more grateful to Ada, Delany, and Hannah. Meet the team and see what they’re up to now:
Hi, I’m Ada Love. As an avid outdoor enthusiast, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to work with WNPF to bring some fresh air and perspective to the new site. I’ve worked in the design field for the past 8 years in a wide range of sectors from healthcare, the outdoor industry, to the fair-trade coffee world. I currently work for UW Medicine on the content strategy team where I get to illustrate, animate, and design user interfaces. I’m happiest when I’m outside using my feet as my primary mode of transportation – hiking and camping with my almost two-year-old son.
See Ada’s work at adalovedesign.com.
Hi, I’m Delany Bisbee. I’m a UI/UX Designer and Design Researcher with a passion for strategy and data driven design solutions. At the end of the day, I most enjoy the challenge of meeting business goals with user experience needs through qualitative research and synthesis. Before moving into the design sphere, I coordinated operations, compliance and government affairs for a fishing company off the coast of Alaska. When I’m not at the computer, I enjoy cooking, reading and staying current on world affairs, investment markets and startups that might go public.
See Delany’s work at delanybisbee.com.
Hi, I’m Hannah Fass Goodman. My love for design started at 17 when I taught myself to code so I could customize my MySpace profile. With a dash of school and heaps of practice I now find myself working professionally in the visual design field for almost a decade creating fun stuff for a wide array of individuals, organizations, and large companies alike. I am a recent transplant to Seattle from Madison, WI and it’s been a fun and exciting journey getting to explore the incredible outdoors and big city life that Washington has to offer.
See Hannah’s work at hannahfassgoodman.com.
The entire team here at Washington’s National Park Fund is thrilled to continue our work in support of the parks, and we know our brand-new website will make our impact even greater. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to Ada, Delany, and Hannah – and to Larry at the School of Visual Concepts – for your incredible work!
Cover photo by Mitch Pittman