Ida B. Wells Center for Restorative Justice: Nonprofit WordPress Redesign

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Wells Center Ida quote logo

The Ida B. Wells Center on American Exceptionalism and Restorative Justice (The Wells Center) is a not-for-profit public benefit organization, founded to serve as a catalyst for ideas, strategies, and intellectual stimulation through Scholarship, Engagement, and Action (SEA) in the creation of thought-provoking social, economic, and academic change in global arenas.

Background

Larry Kenneth Alexander, Author and Cultural theorist, scheduled a free consutlation call with Purrly Digital to find out more about Purrly Digital’s hosting management services and why the websites he’d put together to support his work weren’t showing up at all in web searches. During the call, we uncovered issues with their hosting platform, and since the sites were all built on that platform, in order to move to another, they were going to need to rebuild their sites. Purrly Digital’s team saw an opportunity for the sites to work effectively together, and proposed combining the three sites into one, giving greater visibility and connection to Mr. Alexander’s work as an author and academic.

Wells Center old home page
The original timeline on the Wells Center site was organized, cited, and full of great information. Navigation was challenging though and so one of the new site goals was to improve this experience.
Wells Center old explore resources page
The resources page included only a select number of resources because adding more resources was difficult and not intuitive.
Wells Center old leadership page
The old leadership page had great information, but didn't have a prominent call to action or links to resources on the site.
Wells Center Old SADE page
The Sons and Daughters of the Enslaved site featured a historical timeline, different from the timeline on the original Ida B. Wells site. Merging the two timelines led to an improved user experience where more information could be accessed.
Wells Center Old Sea Change Site
SEA-Change, where the founders hoped to foster conversation was on a different domain, and had a different color scheme

Solution

The new site was designed to support the organization’s mission and Mr. Alexander’s passion for facilitating conversations around historical enslavement and creating a community for the sons and daughters of the enslaved. Purrly Digital brought in the content from the three different domains and organized the information into a singular overarching theme with divergent, but relevant, focuses.

Purrly Digital’s team outlined some easy-to-follow SEO best practices Mr. Alexander could follow as he continued to update and add to the new site. As a maintenance client, the Wells Center can now count on Purrly Digital to keep their new WordPress site secure, and to let them know how to continue to optimize content for better search performance.

Wells Center Home Page Redesign
The new home page design incorporates all three of the original sites into one, easy-to-navigate design
Wells Center Leadership Redesign
The leadership page links through to featured publications written by the leadership team in the resource library
Wels Center Resources Page
The resource library showcases the historical timeline, publications, as well as videos and reports in one easily accessible location. As new resources are added, they show up here automatically, making website maintenance much more simple.
Wells Center Web Page Redesign
The new timeline features an interactive carousel where users can select the century they want to explore
Wells Center Timeline Redesign
Users can easily move between centuries in the timeline with the sidebar navigation

Rebecca and Shannalee were knowledgeable and professional. They made the entire process of simplifying our website and transferring to a more suitable environment easy. We look forward to a long term collaboration as our not-for-profit organization grows.

— Gina Alexander, Ida B. Wells Center on American Exceptionalism and Restorative Justice

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