Solar Equity
Web and Brand Redesign
Role:
Project Lead
Company:
Solar Equity (Non-profit)
Tools:
Figma, Adobe, Forms
OVERVIEW
Solar Equity coordinates solar panel donations, installation partnerships, and sponsorship funding, but their website was not reaching their audiences. The site treated students, installation partners, and financial sponsors as a single audience, serving none of them well: no distinct pathways, no audience-specific credibility signals, and no clear next steps for any visitor type.
I led research, design system creation, and full-site redesign to close that gap, building three distinct conversion pathways backed by a documented, WCAG AA-compliant design system built to survive without a dedicated designer.
DISCOVERY
I began with a heuristic audit using Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics to better understand the site's current gaps. Analysis revealed issues with navigation, functionality, and consistency.
Next, I discussed issues from the perspective of seven board members. This clarified the actual impact and function of the organization the audiences they served.
Finally, I chose to conduct a survey (n=20) to gather user perspectives, then tested what audiences said they actually valued and expected to find on the website to my earlier findings.
The two methods answered different questions: interviews told me what the organization thought the problem was, and the survey told me where that perception diverged from reality.
FINDINGS
The main groups involved with Solar Equity have vastly different goals, which is not explicitly clear based on the existing site.
Students: Interested in joining the organization, volunteering, or attending events. Most interested in the organization's mission, previous projects, volunteering opportunities, and organization information (GroupMe links, events, meeting times.)
Sponsors: Local organizations interested in donating funds or materials to the organization. Require credibility and evidence of previous successful projects.
Partners: Local organizations or non-profits interested in working with Solar Equity to install solar panels and receive tax credits for green energy. Most interested in organization credibility, evidence of successful previous projects, assistance with installation, and tax help (understanding how to apply for tax credits.)
FINDINGS
Finding 1 — Audience collapse. Survey data showed audiences valued three things above all else: mission clarity, evidence of past impact, and clear next steps. However, all three were underrepresented or absent. The site was organized around Solar Equity's internal structure, not how any of its three audiences made decisions.
Example (Image below): A student user attempting to volunteer has no way of doing so on the existing website. So, I directly addressed this by making sure users had actionable endpoints.
Finding 2 — Credibility gap. Board interviews revealed a significant gap between Solar Equity's actual impact and its digital representation: 20+ completed projects, 100 panels installed, and $400 saved monthly for partners existed only in internal records and in-person conversations. Sponsors evaluating whether to fund the organization had no reference regarding previous work: creating a huge gap right at the highest-friction conversion point on the site.
Finding 3 — Discovery failure. Survey results and informal conversation confirmed students were finding opportunities entirely through word of mouth, not the website. There was no centralized opportunity listing, no calendar, and no direct sign-up pathway anywhere on the site, the organization's primary student recruitment channel was effectively broken.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Before designing a single screen, I built a complete design system from scratch because the site runs on a CMS maintained by a non-technical team.
The color palette was derived through color analysis of the existing site, then adjusted for contrast compliance: every color pairing meets WCAG AA 2.2 standards, documented in a contrast matrix so future contributors could make safe decisions independently.
The typography scale was deliberately limited to four heading levels using Dhyana: not for aesthetic reasons, but to match the CMS's structural constraints and prevent the hierarchy from breaking when non-designers added content.
PROTOTYPES
The central architectural decision was to replace the undifferentiated homepage with an explicit three-audience routing system. This was reflected in navigational changes as well.
The following prototype images represent key pages within a typical student's workflow.
REFLECTION
I enjoyed the challenge of a full site redesign, especially addressing challenging issues like working with CMS limitations, complex audience requirements, and significant architectural restructuring. I delivered a full high-fidelity redesign of the entire site, with a documented design system and full architectural rationale for a future developer to implement.
Research limitations: Interviews with actual sponsors and partners would have surfaced trust requirements and credibility signals I may have under-indexed on, and would have made the sponsor/partner pathways significantly sharper.
Design limitations: Designing for the limited capabilities of the CMS used by the organization.
Next steps would include implementation: I would measure success through conversion rate per pathway (volunteer sign-ups, sponsor inquiries, partner contacts), navigation efficiency analytics (time to primary CTA per audience). Next steps would also include moderated usability sessions with students, sponsors and partners.