Defining audience and understanding their needs

To inspire engagement among “social change-makers” we had to first understand what moves them. With the research questions shown below, we aimed to uncover their motivations, goals, and what they need to accomplish these goals.

• What are the different contexts or scenarios that got them interested in such programs?
• What are the different touch-points, interactions, thoughts and emotional experiences during the awareness, consideration and signup stages of the student journey?
• How does CTP meet their needs or help with their pain points?
• How does it compare to similar programs?
• How does their original perception of the word “coaching” align with the goals or needs that led them to the CTP program? Their experience of the program?
• How do they use the tools and skills gained from the program?

Through collaborative workshops, one-on-one interviews, and reviewing past program applications, we defined three distinct audience archetypes within the larger “social change-maker” umbrella, mapped out their journeys from awareness to post-enrollment, and identified the memorable moments along their journeys that sparked their desire for action.

A strategy grounded in user experience

We saw the identified memorable moments along the user journeys as points of leverage, as these moments shape how the audiences feel, transform how they define coaching and its purpose, and, ultimately, how they perceive the pertinence of the program to their social change endeavors. As a result, we created a “moment-building” content strategy that front-loads these memorable moments by architecting the webpage into an environment that allows these moments to take place during the “awareness” and “consideration” stages of their journeys.

Translating strategy into design

01 Illustrating the applicability of coaching in social change

A key barrier to effectively engaging “social change-makers” is the widespread confusion and lack of awareness around what ontological coaching is and how it might support their social change endeavors. For this very reason, one of the most memorable moments along “social change-maker”s’ journeys is when they realize the applicability of ontological coaching in social change, which, up until now, only happens after they’ve experienced the ACE coaching model through its other programs or being coached by ACE’s graduates. To front-load this realization by showing the connection between ontological coaching and social change on the webpage, we designed an interactive story feature that demonstrates how CTP has helped students of different backgrounds bring about social change.

02 Underscoring financial support & accessibility

One of the biggest concerns “social change-makers” have while considering different coaching programs is cost. It is this concern that underpins one of ACE’s greatest strengths, its sliding scale tuition, supplemented by fundraising support provided by the ACE staff, which stood out as a “peak moment” along the user journeys during the consideration stage.

The sliding scale also signals ACE’s commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion, the demonstration of which is critical to ACE’s digital strategy, as it speaks to the values of the organization’s target audience, the “social change-makers”.

To highlight and give form to ACE’s sliding-scale model for tuition, we designed an interactive form that allows prospective students visiting the webpage to tailor the tuition to their unique financial situations. The resources provided at the bottom of the form then connects prospective students to practical help and options to finance the personalized tuition. We also ensured the language that’s used is human, communicating this stressful topic with empathy and reassurance.

03 Providing opportunities to evaluate the program experientially

Another memorable moment along the journeys of “social change-makers” is when they experience the transformative power of ontological coaching, through either the presence of ACE coaches and graduates, or enrolling in the program’s foundational coaching courses. In fact, witnessing the grounding presence, open space, and ease that ACE coaches bring with them is what often inspires all three audience archetypes to take the first action. To allow prospects an opportunity to experience this while browsing ACE’s webpage, we incorporated in our digital solution a call-to-action section that encourages them to evaluate the program experientially.

Designing a brand that embodies a rigorous and yet grounding approach to coaching

In collaborative design workshops, we established design principles that distill the core ideas of ACE’s brand strategy, and explored visual ideas that reflect these principles. We carefully selected type families that convey a feeling of openness and warmth without compromising readability. A new color system reminds visitors of the easy, spacious and calm presence of ACE’s coaches that often inspire action, while adding a touch of boldness and confidence through a bright highlight color that’s complementary to the palette. Combined with illustrations and treated imagery, the results are a brand that’s equal to ACE’s promise and its students’ experience — rigorous and masterful; simple and grounded; practical and action-oriented; and open, compassionate, supportive, and inclusive.

Our client’s kind words

From the very beginning, Sponge brings a curiosity that allows a deep understanding of the problem, all the goals we set, and what the user experience really needs to be. I was just absolutely blown away — Sponge went above and beyond and then above and beyond, again. The rigorous research and synthesis process that Sponges goes through brought us way more value than expected.