Website Redesign

KOSD

Rebranding a San Diego organization serving refugees from Burma
Context
June 2022 - August 2022 || 10 Weeks
Role
Product Designer, Content Strategist
Team
Tram Bui, Nicole Gong, Sarah Liu, Yvonne Liu, Mandy Lai
INTRODUCTION

Background

The Karen Organization of San Diego (KOSD) is a non-profit organization that provides assistance and support to refugees from Burma living in San Diego. For years, KOSD has been an important resource for the Karen community, providing services such as housing, education, and employment assistance.

However, despite their invaluable work, KOSD had been struggling to connect with their online community due to underperforming traction to both their website and social media. Although they had recently undergone a redesign, their WordPress site still faced a disconnect with their online community, leading to a lack of engagement and donations.
WHAT I DID

Investigating the Problem

During Week 1, our stakeholders named their main concerns with their online presence. They asked for quality control across their pages and and new content to increase engagement. They also wanted a good strategy on social media outreach for their self-managed Instagram and Facebook accounts.
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THE PROBLEM
1. Fixing broken links on the website
2. Addressing hidden Facebook image thumbnails
3. Adding a News & Events calendar feature to keep community members updated on the latest events

OUR USERS
Our research highlighted intuitive navigation as a unifying need for KOSD's core audiences, including the immigrant looking for direct support and third party looking to a make a donation.
Primary user: Refugee from Burma
Secondary user: Prospective Donor
IN ESSENCE

How might we amplify KOSD's voice as a refugee community and build awareness for refugee relief?

Our Solution

Redesigning the website and marketing strategies for KOSD to help create an inclusive digital space, improve community engagement, and amplify the voices of refugees from Burma in San Diego.
View full interactive prototype here
IMPACT

Outcome

Our design solution was met with positive responses from our stakeholders, Executive Director Nao Kabashima and Community Program Assistant Paw Ku. Through our website redesign and marketing strategies, we increased the number of  impressions by 45% and raised awareness for refugee relief.
“I see a lot of improvement with this design! I will go through this with the [rest of the] staff!” - Executive Director Nao Kabashima
Read our full case study here!

Design Commentaries

KEY FEATURES
Revamped page descriptions and hero statements
For a concise and accurate preview of each web page's content. To enhance the website copy's readability and provide a succinct yet informative experience, the text length was reduced.
Added Testimonials
To increase visibility of the individual stories behind members of KOSD and the overall impact of the organization.
Incorporated gift-oriented language on the 'Donations' page
To foster a positive perception of community members contributing to the organization's cause.
REFLECTION
Effective design speaks to people universally. 🌎
In our website redesign project, we were guided by the principles of universal design and the idea that UX/UI can transcend language barriers. While there are currently no automated translation technologies available for Burmese and Karen languages, we attempted to make our website more accessible to community members by creating a Burmese version on our final prototype. Through our redesign efforts, we aimed to create a more inclusive and accessible website that would unite KOSD’s community and enable community members to connect with KOSD's mission and services.
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