Embrace Grace

Building for the growing future of a non-profit with a flexible website that delivers a clear message and connects people to a supportive community.
Design
Development
Websites
Non-Profit

Challenge

Embrace Grace reached out to Underbelly for a complete website redesign and build and to get insight into refining their messaging, visuals, and website structure to speak clearly to women across the country who need support before, during, and after pregnancy. At the time they reached out to us, their website was not serving their organization well because it was tough to navigate due to an overload of information and unclear messaging. Additionally, the original setup was difficult to maintain because there wasn’t a way for their team to manage their own content and their website was not equipped with the most up-to-date data on support groups near their website users. To ensure that the website was helping Embrace Grace act on their mission, we needed to create a simple and effective way for women to find and attend a support group near them, reach out for help, and find the resources they need. In essence, we were contacted to provide a consultation and determine which pages would ultimately be used on their site and how their new site and analytics would be structured and accessed based on their goals. 

Approach

Our team began with an audit in order to take stock of all the information that was currently on the website. Equipped with information we gathered from the Embrace Grace team, we proposed an improved information architecture aimed at simplicity. From here, we began designing the layout and content that would make up each page of the new site, ensuring that everything we proposed was in line with the new branding guidelines from Embrace Grace’s recent brand. During this time, we also worked on improving the user experiences in finding a support group. In order for the Embrace Grace team to make any changes to the information on their website prior to our engagement, they had to go through a third-party company to request changes. Understanding the needs of their growing organization, our team set Embrace Grace up with a flexible and easy-to-use content management system (CMS), Contentful, empowering them to easily and independently update their site’s content at any time, saving them time and money. 

The website needed to be de-cluttered and simplified to promote a message that was clearly focused on their target audience, including women seeking support surrounding pregnancy or family and friends who were searching for support on their behalf. Our designers needed to hone in on Embrace Grace’s key value for its users, educate users on this value quickly and efficiently, and provide a reliable search function for finding groups. Previously, searching for a group with the search function relied on the user searching by name of their town; however, we found it more useful to allow users to search by radius. We also wanted to ensure that there was the right mix of tactical information that included messaging about what Embrace Grace’s mission and how to get involved while expressing empathy towards women at all stages of pregnancy, including post-partum. This included using terminology throughout the website that would resonate with women needing support, i.e., “we know things have been hard for you; you can do this, and you are accepted here.”

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“This not only allows for the most up-to-date information at all times but also provides ease of use for Embrace Grace to manage information in a singular place versus managing multiple data points.”

Our development team utilized Salesforce data to group information in a way that automatically refreshes and pulls the most up-to-date information. We structured the website to pull data from two sources, so if data is changed within Salesforce, it is automatically updated on the Embrace Grace website. To accomplish this, we configured Netlify and Gatsby to request data once a day, so data would automatically refresh on the website. This was a hands-off approach for updating information, so the client does have to update information in two places, allowing them to manage their data on one platform. This not only allows for the most up-to-date information at all times but also provides ease of use for Embrace Grace to manage information in a singular place versus managing multiple data points. Our development team also implemented the Gatsby React framework, which allowed for smaller files and build times, quicker setup, and easy options for creating new pages for Embrace Grace to manage their website, giving them a much better CMS experience at no additional cost. This update made it simple for Embrace Grace to create new pages and content within their website without relying on a third-party to make changes to their site.

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Inactive groups used to be visible on the website; to solve this, we created filters for all groups, allowing for up-to-date information, as it was difficult to keep the information accurate on the previous platform. We used filters provided by the application program interface (API) to ensure information was always current. 

Results

Our work with the Embrace Grace team left them with more flexibility to manage their own content, add forms, and update information as they see fit. We equipped their team with the tools they need to manage their website content as their business changes. Their website now has a search feature that is quick and simple for women to use to find support groups in their area, and the site is updated with visually rich media to clearly communicate their story and appeal to women seeking support. 

We knew that Embrace Grace was anticipating a large amount of growth over the next couple of years, so we wanted to be sure we delivered a website that would solve their current problems but was flexible enough to adapt to their organization’s future. To accomplish this, our design and development team worked together to create a small set of highly customizable and reusable components. Every page of the Embrace Grace site utilizes the same set of components arranged in different ways and customized to fit the specific use case. Keeping the component set small but versatile allowed us to create something that was unique and visually pleasing without taking up excessive development bandwidth.

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