HOOKED ON FISHING

As the scrum master of a 6 person team, I led the creation of a new website for the Peoria, IL nonprofit organization Hooked on Fishing over the course of my Advanced Web Design class at Bradley University.

Timeline:

February 2023 – May 2023

Project Goal:

Attract more participants, donors, volunteers, and sponsors for Hooked on Fishing by redesigning the organization’s website.

Software:

Figma, HTML5, CSS3, WordPress, Elementor

THE CLIENT

Hooked on Fishing is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free fishing opportunities to all people. They are especially passionate about helping youth, seniors, veterans, and groups with special needs experience the joys of fishing, working with schools, scouts, park districts, community groups, churches, nursing homes, and other organizations to accomplish their mission. In addition to providing a place to fish freely, Hooked on Fishing takes pride in educating their guests on the finer points of fishing, teaching fish biology, fishing techniques, ethics, and more. These points are taught by both the Hooked on Fishing staff and their team of volunteers, who all work together to ensure that fishing is as accessible as possible.

I and my team were connected to Hooked on Fishing through my Advanced Web Design course at Bradley University. We were introduced to Hooked on Fishing’s executive director by the instructor of the class, and held bi-weekly meetings with the executive director regarding progress on the website throughout the semester.

THE CHALLENGE

The main reason driving the creation of a new website for Hooked on Fishing was to gain more online donors, volunteers, sponsors, and visitors. Previously, getting a new donor, volunteer, or sponsor from the website was exceedingly rare, with most of the people in these categories coming in from other sources. Most Hooked on Fishing donations came from personal interactions and connections and regular park visitors, with Sponsors coming mainly from previously connected organizations. Similarly, new volunteers were primarily sourced from social media outlets due to active searching by Hooked on Fishing staff, with forms being received from the website very rarely. While organizations who wish to participate in the park were required to book a time using the previous website, the majority of those who do so either contacted staff at Hooked on Fishing first or were returning participants.

To prevent the great deal of personal legwork required from Hooked on Fishing’s staff to obtain donors, volunteers, and sponsors while increasing the quantity of applicants, the structure of Hooked on Fishing’s website needed to be reexamined. We needed to understand the current processes for donating, volunteering, and sponsoring in order to streamline them in our own design. With so many distinctly different users to consider, the most difficult challenge my team faced was striking a balance between the sometimes conflicting purposes of the website to ensure that each user type could access what they needed quickly and efficiently.

Previous website design

REBRANDING

To communicate the change in the website’s purpose, my team decided in conference with our client that a rebranding of the website was necessary. Drawing on photographs of the park and common fishing themes for inspiration, we created a moodboard for the site that would inform all of our visual design decisions throughout the web design process. The ultimate goal of this new visual palette was to allow us to direct the user’s attention more effectively than the visual design of the previous website allowed.

Moodboard

REBRANDING

To communicate the change in the website’s purpose, my team decided in conference with our client that a rebranding of the website was necessary. Drawing on photographs of the park and common fishing themes for inspiration, we created a moodboard for the site that would inform all of our visual design decisions throughout the web design process. The ultimate goal of this new visual palette was to allow us to direct the user’s attention more effectively than the visual design of the previous website allowed.

Moodboard

CONTENT DESIGN

Previous site content was directed mainly towards participants. This was reflected by the fact that the majority of site visitors came for booking purposes. Opportunities for getting involved were largely left to internal pages, which needed to be looked for and found by website visitors to become salient to the user. To attract donors, volunteers, and sponsors, more messaging was required to inform visitors about not only the opportunities for getting involved, but why being involved with Hooked on Fishing is beneficial to both the site visitor and the people that Hooked on Fishing is dedicated to helping.

The first step in making this additional content was to outline each piece’s place and importance. This was achieved by creating a map of the site’s content and information architecture. The map’s structure allowed us to move groupings of content up and down within site pages to convey their relative importance during conference with the client. From this sitemap, we were able to write tailored content for each section and page of the new website. Our decisions and conversations with the client about the content needs at this stage of development also informed the decision to take additional photographs for the website, giving us the ability to make a list of which photos were needed to match the purpose of the content. 

Once the content was decided, we needed to ensure that the site’s homepage formatted that content into an effective, coherent story. To accomplish this, we utilized the website framework outlined in Donald Miller’s novel “Building a StoryBrand” to inform the layout of the homepage content.

Information Architecture

DESIGNING FUTURE UPDATES

The most significant addition to the new website was the Community page and Events page, which include content that has yet to be determined and must be consistently updated. In the beginning of development, the client expressed to us that they wanted to have a system of updating the public through their website about park happenings and feature individual Hooked on Fishing park participants more prominently on the website. This led to the development of the Community page, which is entirely filled with editable, updateable content. 

To ensure that the client can easily enter new features and events, we needed to create both templates to contain the front-end visuals and a backend interface for the client to enter the desired data. I created this functionality for the website using a combination of different plugins and tools in WordPress, ensuring that the client will not have difficulty entering any updates they may desire in the future.

Original Community Page Design

DESIGNING FUTURE UPDATES

The most significant addition to the new website was the Community page and Events page, which include content that has yet to be determined and must be consistently updated. In the beginning of development, the client expressed to us that they wanted to have a system of updating the public through their website about park happenings and feature individual Hooked on Fishing park participants more prominently on the website. This led to the development of the Community page, which is entirely filled with editable, updateable content. 

To ensure that the client can easily enter new features and events, we needed to create both templates to contain the front-end visuals and a backend interface for the client to enter the desired data. I created this functionality for the website using a combination of different plugins and tools in WordPress, ensuring that the client will not have difficulty entering any updates they may desire in the future.

Original Community Page Design

FINAL DESIGN

Our final design includes much more comprehensive content, imagery, and opportunities for involvement than the previous version of the website. Our rebranded use of color has gained positive feedback from initial viewers, and site visitors are able to much more easily access the information they desire, no matter their reason for visiting the site. The client has expressed great fondness for the new design, informing us that they feel the site will be a significant improvement over the previous design.