IAWG.net

Overview

Organization: Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises
Collaborators: Secretariat, Steering Committee, Finance, Legal, Raygun, Ipas, IPPF, Save the Children
Date: February 2019 - March 2020
Goal: Identify opportunities/risks and take action to improve user experience.
Results: Addressed five priority areas to make the website inclusive and accessible.

Where We Started

IAWG strives to be the primary source of resources for those providing, fundraising for, and advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights in humanitarian settings. Most users visit the website to access the extensive, curated collection of resources from IAWG members. Before January 2019, IAWG did not have a dedicated staff member who could support the improvement and maintenance of this website.

Developing a Plan

First, I needed to understand our stakeholders and audiences. During my research and discovery, I held informational interviews with key coalition leaders, conducted 10 user tests, and released a survey to our general audience, which garnered 127 responses.

Through this process, I was able to identify the opportunities and risks facing IAWG.net and develop an action plan to resolve them. This plan was used to launch the RFQ to find an appropriate vendor and was shared with internal coalition members, providing an opportunity to share feedback. This level of transparency and early engagement of members created buy-in and enthusiasm for the project.

Opportunities / Risks

The website redesign aimed to address several key issues:

Inclusive Imagery
Assure we represent the people we serve accurately and humanely in ethically obtained images.
Inclusive Content
Establish a website that can support multiple languages and has the functionality to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Accessibility for People with Limited Connectivity
Guarantee equal access for both people working in the field and headquarter offices.
Accessibility of Information
Make information digestible for those who do not already have technical knowledge.
Support Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)
Provide space for local CBOs to communicate and quickly share resources.

Action & Results

Inclusive Imagery

Worked with coalition members to get permission to publish ethically sourced photos that represent the people we serve accurately and with dignity.
All images contain relevant metadata, including where it was taken, who it features, and the photographer’s information.

Inclusive Content

Provide functionality for Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.
Translate content and provide complete functionality for top resources in French and Spanish. Increased Spanish language visitors by 87% and French language visitors by 6%.
The heading structure is clearly defined, used consistently, and follows a logical flow.
Pages have titles and descriptions.
Developed a new color palette to meet color contrast standards.
Links describe their purpose. No more “click here.”
Photos have image descriptions and alternative text tags.
Videos provide captions.

Accessibility for People with Limited Connectivity

Improved average page load time by 66.40%.
Mobile-first design for users without access to a desktop computer, about 20% of our visitors.

Accessibility of Information

Improved search functionality across the site and resource database. Search results now provide more information, including date, author, and a short description.
Rewrote all website content to speak to all audiences with more clarity, making resources more digestible. Anecdotally, advocacy workers and grant writers find this particularly helpful.
Improve layout of complex training, which are our most-used resources and drive 7% of our website traffic.
Integrate relevant resources, events, and news throughout the website.

Support Community-Based Organizations

Lend our platform to CBOs via the emergency page, providing a space to quickly submit and publish relevant resources, news, and updates.
Create an email service by which CBOs can message IAWG members to promote their resources, news, and updates.

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