Hands of Care International | case study
Hands of Care International (HOCI) founded by Mark & Irene DeFrates is a ministry non-profit based in East Africa. Their purpose is to serve the people by bringing medical and humanitarian aid along with the gospel to remote areas– one truck load at a time. They were in need of a fresh logo and website to encourage more donors and mission volunteers to join their cause. After thorough brand strategy sessions with the client, a brand style, set of logos, colorful Kenyan culture-inspired color scheme, slogan, marketing videos, and effective website were born with user experience in mind.
I designed and developed the responsive website using Wordpress and Divi, and it was my largest, most involved project yet! To strengthen their brand voice, I utilized personalized copywriting and videography to help people SEE the incredible things they do for the remote people of Africa.
To experience the website live, please visit www.hocinternational.org.
The Challenge
For Hands of Care International's new website, the primary goal was to raise awareness, get their story into the world, and help others understand their mission. HOCI works with tough environments and graphic scenarios. They wanted to expose their viewers to experience the seriousness of what they do without making people sick to the point of driving them off the site.
For the secondary goal, the client wanted to attract volunteers and healthcare team members, receive invitations to speak at church events, gain church and organization sponsorships, and bring in more donations from caring individuals.
Key Problems
The previous logo and website were outdated, not aesthetically pleasing, and gave the impression HOCI was not a serious non-profit solving real world needs. The website did little to invite the viewer in on their mission, provided little information, lacked imagery and video to help connect with people's hearts, and did not have mobile responsiveness.
My Role
This was a solo project so I took on all the roles of brand strategist and designer, copywriter, photographer, videographer, UX designer, and website developer. On-site mission trip photography and video clips were provided to me. I did hire help in the final stage from a freelance website developer to clean up my site code and making sure it was responsive across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
As the UX designer, I gathered the info from our deep-dive brand strategy Zoom sessions. My client and I had different schedules, so presentations were recorded and sent using Loom to receive feedback. A sitemap and information architecture were established, leading to a paper wireframe. I custom-designed the website in Wordpress using Divi.
User Research
As shown in the booklet video above, two brand strategy sessions were conducted with the client to tap into HOCI's what, when, how, why, and who as a non-profit. I gathered details that helped form their mission slogan, user segmentation, user personas, user journey, long-term vision, website goals, brand attributes, and brand archetype.
• Mission slogan: "Bringing medical & humanitarian aid along with the gospel to remote areas– one truck load at a time."
• User segmentation: 80% are people the client knows personally that predominantly reside in the United States. 20% are smaller churches who are connected through people that know the client and are monthly church sponsors. The ideal/growth target would be deep-pocket companies and philanthropists.
• User persona #1 - Sponsor: Beverly is a 35 year old woman who's recently come out of a bad marriage with two girls aged 15 and 13. She has a blue collar job in mid-management where she exercises her great work ethic and makes $65,000 a year. Beverly is outdoorsy, loves LL Bean and Tactical Gear apparel, and is conservative slant but enjoys listening to various perspectives. Though she is a new Christian, she's full of the Holy Spirit, is active in her faith, and is a woman of honor and character. She enjoys spending her time with her family, is active in her church, and leads a women's ministry. During this overwhelming season of life as a single mom, she is teetering on burnout and lacks the overall cost and availability to go on a mission trip. However, Beverly likes to be involved, and she's no different regarding HOCI where she gives her budgeted money, input, and time. She thinks, "I wish I could do more" and has a mind that runs on ideas. With everything she's been through in life, she is just glad to give back in any way she can.
• User persona #2 - Team Member: Bob is a 45 year old man who's been married 25 years and is an empty nester. He received his Master's degree in Finance and makes a yearly salary of $150K. Growing up out west on a ranch, he enjoyed the rodeo as a participant and viewer, drives a Ford crew cab pickup, enjoys intellectual reading materials, and is a man with heart who is willing to learn and lend a helping hand wherever needed. Bob leads by example and is someone to look up to, and younger folks enjoy his mentorship. A seasoned Christian and studious of the Bible, he attends church most Sundays and is firmly grounded in who he is and who Jesus is. He does struggle that he isn't living life to the fullest, but HOCI intrigues him and his wife, and they're allowed the flexibility needed to tailor their trips overseas.
• Long-term vision: Buy more trucks to reach more remote areas, build more churches/life centers that can double as a healthcare center or hub for team members to stay and communicate, more church/organization sponsorships, increase healthcare team numbers, and spread mission work into Central African Republic.
• Brand archetypes: #1 The Lover (promising passion), #2 The Explorer (promising freedom), and #3 The Creator (promising authenticity).
Final Design & Outcome
The new HOCI logo and website was redesigned to reflect the Kenyan village culture of beauty, strength, adventure, and grit with colors, textures, and photography focusing on both the spiritual and physical driven purposes of meeting the people's needs there. Efficient and organized story-telling was a top priority. My client was thrilled with the outcome, viewers have a much clearer idea of what this non-profit accomplishes, and it has received many compliments of its appearance and friendly usability.
