CLIENT: National Human Services Assembly
National Human Services Assembly, an association dedicated to bringing together the leaders of the nation’s leading national nonprofits in the fields of health, human and community development, and human services, needed assistance in assessing their current brand and website. They wanted to better serve their members and present themselves as a vital resource to the human services environment.
Assessment
Having a cohesive brand position, visual identity, and online presence is imperative in developing an association that is nationally respected. The National Human Services Assembly uses their website as their primary resource for providing information to members, both current and potential. The website serves as an opportunity for being an educational and promotional vehicle. Its content and design must be easy to navigate, informational, and aesthetically pleasing so that audiences are enticed to take the next steps in furthering the mission of NHSA.
In order to provide specific recommendations to assist NHSA in improving the effectiveness of their brand, we performed a thorough assessment and created a detailed document that outlined our observations and advice.
Messaging
The National Human Services Assembly is a useful resource for advancing best practices in the human services field. However, their messaging statements did not fully inform audiences as to what the active role of the Assembly is. We suggested that they create a more detailed mission statement, vision statement, and tagline that would use active verbs to paint a picture of what the NHSA hopes to ultimately achieve and how they will achieve it.
Visual Identity
In addition to creating a cohesive set of messaging statements, it is important for NHSA to maintain consistency in their visual identity. After our assessment, we noticed that the logo versions and colors often varied between sites. We provided the proper color values that they should be using, allowing them to make that easy fix on their own.
Website
The website is the primary way in which prospective and current members learn about the benefits of being part of the National Human Services Assembly, as well as important news in the human services environment. We found some key areas of improvement that would greatly enhance the effectiveness of the site as a resource tool.
LANGUAGE
The content featured on the NHSA website was very informative, and important to members of the sector. However, the language used was not as appealing and compelling as possible. We suggested that some of the content be rewritten to intrigue audiences. We also suggested that NHSA more clearly promote the work they do, by creating a section on the homepage that gave key information about the Assembly, by featuring testimonials from members, and by promoting the successes that their members in advancing the human services sector.
ORGANIZATION
In some cases, the most important information was buried on subpages or in places not immediately noticeable to viewers. In other cases, it was difficult for readers to get a quick sense of what was on each page due to a lack of hierarchy. A simple solution is for someone responsible for the NHSA site to read through the content of the page and find places to put headers, subheads, and callouts. This will break up each page and improve readability.
VISUALS
One thing that we felt was missing overall was the incorporation of visuals. The human services sector is one that lends itself to the use of images to tell stories. The news stories featured on the site would be more captivating and interesting if they were accompanied by compelling graphics.
Newsletter
The newsletter has a lot of great information, but the way it is presented appears overwhelming and cumbersome to read. Email format is conducive to glancing through it to determine whether it should be read now or later. There were several simple changes that we suggested making to the newsletter so it would be a more useful tool and would be easy to update for the staff.
IDENTITY
We suggested that they create an overall identity for the newsletter, starting with a name that is both informative and intriguing. The current name, hsn, isn’t strong and would benefit from an update. Our next suggestion was to create standardized headlines that would divide the newsletter into five main sections and could serve as a place to incorporate imagery. This would allow the newsletter to be visually appealing but wouldn’t require constant maintenance by staff.
FORMATTING
The formatting of the newsletter is also important to its success. We suggested creating a standardized format for content: a concise, bold headline, followed by a short caption paragraph with a link to more information. This link should open in a new window, instead of reloading the current browser page. We also suggested creating a standardized format for any events featured on the newsletter.
Social Media
Social Media channels such as Facebook and Twitter can be beneficial tools when used properly. They can help NHSA spread their message and reach a larger range of audiences. NHSA had a Twitter handle is use that was very active. However, it wasn’t easily found through the Twitter site and didn’t promote the brand as well as it could have. We created a new avatar (profile picture), header image, and suggested new Twitter handles to increase visibility and enhance the look of the landing page. The images could also be used for the Facebook profile, which was yet to be set up. Social media sites such as these are very useful, but only when properly maintained. We suggested that NHSA only take on channels that they know they can dedicate adequate time to maintain and grow.
Summary
We found that National Human Services Assembly website serves as a good foundation to be a very impactful resource. There is an abundance of important content, numerous links to other important resources, and a strong focus on providing for members. After completing our thorough assessment, we recognized opportunities that would help the website become a greater tool. Furthermore, we believe that these opportunities will improve the viability of the organization by positioning NHSA as a crucial voice in the human services sector. They have the capability to galvanize actions and facilitate meaningful collaborations that will change the environment.
Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.