A clean, welcoming design for Guelph & Wellington region’s online data tool.
Toward Common Ground is a partnership of social and health service organizations that created a collective planning model for Guelph and Wellington. Their website is an important tool for those wanting to use data towards collective action.
They outgrew their website and wanted something intuitive, welcoming, and fresh. They were open to the creative direction, so I proposed leaning into the text-heavy nature of the website. The final design uses blocks of colour paired with prominent outlined buttons, and uniquely shaped images. This provides the website with a unique look that’s engaging at every turn.
The website was developed by Sandbox Software Solutions.
Old design above, new design below.
Leaning into the text-heavy nature of the website.
A major pain-point with their previous website was that it was text-heavy, and not very engaging due to walls of text. Sandbox Software Solutions addressed this through UX, and I through UI. My suggestions were to:
- Turn headings into a graphic element. This was achieved by significantly bolding them.
- Have images with uniquely shaped masks that are incorporated into the design vs instead of having plain images simply put onto the page.
- The website has a very large number of buttons, so I made them unique and fun through both the full-width style and hover state. Also, outlining the buttons helps tie in the logo’s outline style.
- Blocks of colour gives the eye a break from all the black text on white background. This also helps separate sections.
Thoughtful use of stock imagery.
Images are mindfully used throughout the website, in a way that compliments the information but doesn’t make the images the focus. With the website’s design being unique, I didn’t want to create a jarring user experience with stereotypical imagery mixed in with bespoke design. So I selected a number of stock images that leaned away from the stereotypical look and felt more natural—see below for samples.
