The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a prominent transatlantic policy organization that drives debate and policy change on key topics to support international cooperation across the United States and Europe. GMF partnered with Taoti to redesign their organization’s robust website.
Impacting Transatlantic Policy With a Modern Design
The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Our Partnership
Goals
GMF selected Taoti to rebuild their Drupal website to upgrade from Drupal 7 to 9, modernize the visual design, and better support several organizational goals. The main goals included:
- Increase brand awareness and recognition
- Strengthen community engagement
- Improve quality management and operational efficiency
Solution
Visual Design
As a prestigious, global organization that influences policy and serves users that include world leaders and high-ranking government officials, a sophisticated brand presence is crucial to reflect the history and legitimacy of the organization. Our creative team selected a bold color palette and typography for a modern, impactful visual design. As part of our creative process, we shared with the client a set of style tiles that showcased a more editorial or curatorial feel. For example, the homepage design and direction of the site incorporate bold typography and editorial aesthetic that grabs the reader’s attention and highlights relevant information and current News and Policy Insights.
User Experience
The new website offers several listing pages where users can search and browse for information using various types of filters. We felt that it was important for GMF’s core audiences to have an enjoyable experience reviewing information on the site which led us to showcase ‘the latest’ news and insights throughout the site without displaying too much information at once for easier consumption.
Highlighting Grantmaking & Leadership Programs
One of GMF’s goals was to enhance its visual identity and brand awareness to drive more visibility to grantmaking and leadership programs. We revamped the navigation and menu structure of the site by highlighting these key offerings that make GMF stand out. Information for Grants and Leadership Development programs are now more accessible and easier to find with the new navigation structure of the website.
New Functionality & Integrations
One unique part of this project was our partnership in defining and improving GMF’s content governance and publishing workflow. We held a governance model strategy workshop and developed a custom service design blueprint to guide their internal site management. This includes integration with GMF’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the donation platform GMF uses to collect donations from their several audiences. The new site also includes a new events page that allows users to easily access and learn about upcoming events GMF is holding.
Impact
Overall, this redesign enhanced the website as an essential tool in GMF’s efforts to position itself at the forefront of policy dialogue, leadership development, support for civil society, and foreign affairs convening.
“The German Marshall Fund is a sophisticated organization with a widely varied portfolio of activities, and the website redesign was a complex project. Taoti was an invaluable partner in bringing structure to that complexity, creating simple and delightful user experiences for our diverse audiences. GMF comes away from the project with a website that is easy to navigate, effectively conveys our brand, and a refreshed visual identity that is both warmer and more flexible. This redesign leapfrogs GMF to the front of our sector for digital presentation, and it was a delight working with Taoti throughout.”
-Andrew Kolb, Director of Communications at GMF
