The African Community Learning Program
Founded in 2017, the African Community Learning Program is a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization that supports students of the African diaspora culturally and academically. As part of their mission to empower through education and cultural pride, ACLP currently focuses on serving Black high school students with college preparation and access to higher education.
In the summer of 2020, I joined ACLP as the only web designer on the team. I worked closely with the founder to redesign their entire website from scratch. The organization was in amidst a transition from working elementary/middle school students to high school seniors. There was a need revamp the online platform to provide additional resources and guidances. My role involved designing wireframes, outlining user flows, and creating visual elements for the new site.
Overview
Racial inequities in our social and educational systems are challenges to current generations of Black students. In the city of Philadelphia, the on-time graduation rate for Black students was 60.6% in 2018, drastically lower in comparison to white students.
Access to quality educational, racism, and cultural exclusion from curricula are but a few of the challenges that Black students experience within school walls. With ACLP's new initiative called The Future Scholars Program, the organization aims to help equip students with professional and career building skills needed to thrive in college environments.
Challenges &
Objectives
In amidst developing its curriculum and brand, one of ACLP's main objectives was to change the visual and contextual layout of their website.
Objectives:
1. Design a user friendly website that details ACLP's work and allows comprehensive access to academic tools and information.
2. Design an online experience with intuitive user flow.
3. Allow interested students and partners to easily sign up and get involved.
01 Back to Basics
Researching the Existing Space
Research Goals:
1. Analyze similar non-profit organizations invested in the realm of education access and their platforms
2. Identify key features of said platforms and how they contribute to user experience
3. Understand who is interested in the organization and the pipeline needed to get them in contact
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Sample websites included the following:
02 Organizing Contents
Building Site Map
After synthesizing common trends across different websites during my research into other nonprofits, I created a foundational sitemap given the current content that existed for the organization.
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03 Wireframes
Build and Re-build
I developed initial wireframes for the pages and furthered altered them based on team feedback and potential pain points of existing designs.
04 Project Takeaways
Challenges and Room For Growth
This was my first large scale web project that really catapulted me into UI design. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about UI/UX best practices while also allowing me to work for a cause that I also cared deeply about.
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Some of my key takeaways from the project include:
- Make a robust project plan : Visual aesthetics are only a part of the product and it is more important to prioritize the actual structure of the site to improve user experience.
- Simple is better (most of the time) : For design elements, consider how components contribute towards making the user's interactions easier.
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What could be done differently:
- I did not have the opportunity to conduct user interviews to test the prototype. As a result, there was little room for organic feedback from users on what works and what doesn't.
- Exploring more aspects of user flow
- I could have explored the usage of user stories to help me better understand the target audiences.
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