E3G is a uk non-profit organisation. They publish research papers and organise conferences on sustainable development and climate change in collaboration with high-profile institutions and government departments. In other words, they are heavy-weight environmental diplomats.
E3G needed a website where they could publish their research, document their activities and attract potential funding. The basic form it took was that of a high-end blog. The main area of content display was the Programmes section (Fig. iii) with its relative categories and subcategories where the site’s editors could publish the organistation’s research.
E3G’s logo was the starting point for the site’s design. The colour palette, serifed font and the triangles that formed the logo’s hexagon provided the branding cues for the site. A serifed font for the titles and navigation, the 60° angle for the navigation tabs and secondary header backgrounds, and colours all lent themselves seamlessly.
After six months, we reviewed the site’s usage. We discovered that most visits came from Google queries for the main founders’ names. The next most visited pages were buried in the About section. As a result, we re-organised the home page, dedicating an area of the sub-navigation to explain what E3G was all about and making room for the founders’ pictures with links to their profiles (Fig. i).
Although the site’s traffic is low, those that do visit come from the target audience E3G sought to attract. To date, articles have been read by european and commonwealth governments, the Pentagon, the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the UN, multinational companies, high-profile environmental NGO‘s, international media outlets and major UK, european and US universities.
Testimonial
“E3G has been extremely pleased with the work Seb has undertaken for us in the development and delivery of our website. He understood our initial vague ideas and helped us shape them in ways that have delivered an extremely attractive and effective website which continually receives positive feedback. The site is extremely easy to use for site visitors, and is easy to update by E3G staff. He was quick to respond to our timetable needs and has been a delight to work with.”
Chris Littlecott – E3G, Project Coordinator