The Center for Global Development aims to reduce global poverty and improve lives through innovative economic research, to better drive policy and practices of the world’s top decision makers.
The CGD is a think tank that conducts research and writes on topics such as Sustainable Development, Finance, Global Health, Migration, Refugees & Humanitarian Policy, Climate, etc.
In 2022, CGD celebrated their 20th anniversary by partnering with WDG again to refresh the look and feel of their brand and website. For more details about the updated experience, check out our case study exploring the new web design for the Center for Global Development.
Build a site that enables meaningful exploration of resources in order to better educate users and encourage increased conversions.
Improved site navigation and structure, created an improved user experience and allows for resources to be utilized effectively.
Enhanced user experience lead to improved conversions and resource utilization.
Challenge
The CGD has many prominent experts who create valuable content for the site. It is, therefore, necessary that these resources be surfaced and referenced for a wide range of audiences. Most importantly, their work needs to be available to policymakers who are in need of quality resources in order to make difficult decisions.
WDG utilized brand components and key colors to create a cohesive appearance and draw attention to necessary areas of the site. We leveraged taxonomies by showcasing related and curated work alongside content users are searching for. Our designers provided CGD with a beautiful structure that allows for maximum flexibility in cross-pollinating content.
Our strategy team discovered that there is a lack of knowledge regarding who the CGD is and what they do. A majority of site visitors are directed to the site for very specific purposes, but there is very little additional content exploration being done.
Since CGD published a wide range of content, WDG found an effective method to present the various forms of material, like blogs, podcasts, policy briefs, etc. We created a delightful reading experience with easy sharing and a way to display more content for further exploration.
WDG put careful consideration in the homepage content presentation. It was necessary to be deliberate with the homepage layout and put “What we do” at the forefront along with “Impacts & Influence”. We presented them with the option to either have a large piece of content or break them up to feature different things, depending on importance.
Multiple paths of entry and exploration, as well as flexible layouts that allow for aesthetic content authorship, have provided CGD with the capability to achieve their key performance indicators. The Center for Global Development has been able to improve resource usage, time spent on site, and subscriptions.