“Make it easy for me to do the right thing.” The new David Suzuki Foundation website, beta launched in late 2009 and re-launched the following spring, took this statement to heart with its ease of use, public focus and emphasis on taking action.

The new website garnered positive reactions from the Foundation’s community. It saw early success when the donation page I redesigned launched in July 2009 and doubled the funds raised online that month compared to July 2008. The new site enabled staff to engage more deeply with supporters through blogging, which, once I demonstrated its high portion of overall traffic, became a key component. Donations and acquisitions improved dramatically over the previous website by implementing best practices, user-tested information architecture and good hierarchy.

Until my departure from the Foundation in August 2012, I was committed to making the site I designed and developed better, responding to performance data, user and expert feedback, staff needs and changes on the web. I monitored Google Analytics and acquisition statistics to improve performance and conversion rates on everything from buttons and links to signup forms and language. I helped establish best practices for the website and aimed for great consistency in design and copy. I made copy suggestions for the site and for campaign websites based on my understanding of user interaction on the web and information architecture. For example, I recommended that the section vaguely called “call for leadership” be changed to the clear, commonly used “take action.” The result? Traffic to that page increased by 75%. In the summer of 2012, the English site went mobile with responsive web design techniques. I also helped train staff on using the CMS and worked to make it as easy as possible for them to flexibly add content.

My roles: design, programming and website administration in English and French; project planning; web strategy; wireframing and site architecture development; performance analysis and reporting; copywriting; staff and volunteer training.

This version of the website was retired on October 25, 2017.