By Ogova Ondego
Published April 28, 2016
A library-development charity that works in 12 sub-Saharan African countries to distribute books and learning resources and to train librarians has launched a new website with the aim of ‘connecting better’ with its partners and beneficiaries.
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“We are really delighted to launch this new website, which brings together the work we have done on our messaging and our visual identity,” says Jessica Faulkner, Book Aid International’s Head of Communications. “We wanted to be able to better tell the story of the work we do, the libraries that we support and the difference we make. The new site has a much stronger focus on the places where we work and the programmes we run to help more people in sub-Saharan Africa discover the joy of reading. We wanted to take this opportunity to really maximise our digital presence so that we can reach a wider audience of potential supporters for our work.”
Faulkner says bookaid.org, the website launched on April 22, 2016, “is the culmination of a year-long project to reinvigorate the charity’s messaging, visual identity and digital presence. The charity has prioritised user experience and showcasing its library programmes in sub-Saharan Africa in the new, fully-responsive site.”
The United Kingdom-based charity, Faulkner says, partnered with a creative agency called Neo “to create both the refreshed branding and the new website. The new visual identity features a refined logo, a new colour palette and an illustration style which helps to communicate the work of the charity.”
The new site is expected to “provide access to books and support libraries in sub-Saharan Africa” as the book charity seeks to “give voice to its beneficiaries and to make it easier for supporters to keep in touch with the charity’s activities.”
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Working with a cross-departmental team from Book Aid International, Neo is said to have “conducted a brand and visual audit, a thorough analysis of the ways supporters interact with the charity’s website and a user-profiling exercise to ensure the new site would meet the needs of the charity’s supporters and partners.”
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Charlie Peverett, Neo’s Digital Strategist says, ‘Book Aid International has a great story to tell. The new information architecture, content plan and page designs have been developed to make it easier to explore that story, and see your place in it – whether you’re an individual donor, a school teacher, a library partner or a publisher. The flatter structure, with an emphasis on priority content and readability, is designed to help keep the site focused and strong over time.
Book Aid International also works in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Middle East.
