We are still riding high off our latest website project with Lloyd EcoDistrict, a local nonprofit here in Portland. One, because it was a truly fun-filled experience with the best clients and collaborators. Two, because the new, reimagined website is so darn awesome that we can’t wait to share it with the world.

Here’s a look inside the project and how it all went down:

Early Days

Lloyd EcoDistrict is an organization that wears many hats, tirelessly working to build a stronger community and create new resources for its inhabitants. It has a lot to offer, so they needed a new website design that could keep pace with a variety of scheduling, donation, news, and stats sharing tools to properly share it and make it user-friendly for visitors to their website. The original version also struggled to reflect the clients’ values, and it was unable to communicate all their information in a way that was efficient and digestible for users. Germinate Creative was tapped to help Lloyd EcoDistrict solve their website organization, aesthetic, and user experience challenges.

On our end, we conducted a content strategy workshop with the client to discuss their audiences, types of content, and the different actions they wanted these audiences to take—like making a donation, attending an event, or visiting the area. We also analyzed how people have been using the website—including how they discover and use content—to inform the proposed sitemap, design, and information architecture for the new website.

From there, we began work on the new design to help reflect the work they do, carefully balancing style, substance, and engagement. The client was open to using an innovative design with vibrant colors and quirky layouts, so we all had a lot of fun exploring colors and imagery together. Overall, we went with an analogous color palette of greens and blues to call out their dedication to the environment and focus on the bright side of what they do. Imagery and a compelling layout led the way to help draw in audiences, while the user experience is designed to be aspirational and substantial.

Finally, our website development pros stepped in to bring it all together. Since the client wanted a robust, yet easy-to-use content management system, the developers recommended a powerful combination of WordPress and Beaver Builder. This ensured the build would be SEO-friendly with a tidy URL structure, responsive design, proper page hierarchy, fast-loading pages, and optimized images.

The new Lloyd EcoDistrict website delivers an intuitive, fun, and easy-to-navigate experience for website visitors, making it quick to find information on joining, visiting, or attending events in the area. Exciting colors and visuals keep visitors engaged with the content while they journey through the site.

Results

Visit ecolloyd.org to see the reimagined website for yourself!