The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) works to advance a strong and sustainable paper and wood products industry. They are an active member-driven organization, a strong advocate for sustainable best practices, and the voice of an essential industry.
The Yes& team laid the groundwork for a new Drupal-powered website with a stellar digital and content strategy to streamline AF&PA’s multiple websites into one manageable system. We joined the team to bring their approach to life.
Services provided
- User Experience Strategy
- Web Design
Pruning the site down to its essentials
Our challenge was not just bringing visuals to this strategy. We also needed to create a user experience that reduced the number of web properties from seven to three without feeling disconnected.
Using Figma and the Frames X pattern library, we created a set of wireframes using real content. Using actual content in the wireframes allowed the team to provide efficient feedback. In turn, we could effectively adjust the user experience to continue meeting the strategy’s goals by leveraging content needs and the multitude of UX patterns found in Frames X. It saves budget as we only. need to design new pattens, not ones well-established by UX best practices.
This process required good, honest, and open communication between the AF&PA project team, the Yes& team, and Rocketkoi. The content strategists and project managers at Yes& kept those lines of communication open throughout the project, creating a successful, strong collaboration among everyone.
Letting the content bloom
We led the visual design process for the project, starting with stakeholder surveys through QA of front-end development. The site’s visual language showcases the AF&PA brand and balances the need for a content-focused user experience with attractive visuals and photography.
Statistics and achievements are interwoven into content rather than in one or two specific features or areas. Readers can see the impact AF&PA has thanks to its efforts and members in context, and AF&PA staff do not always have to rely on photos to tell a story.
Planting companion sites
The strategy emphasized that AF&PA should not try to make every site they manage under the core website’s purview. Another website is called for if an audience has unique needs and the content has different goals!
The Paperboard Packaging Alliance (PPA) (a joint initiative of the American Forest & Paper Association and the Paperboard Packaging Council) holds an annual student design challenge. We designed a website that showcases the current challenge as well as a gallery of past years’ entries.
Enticing the right audience via different design choices
Using illustration to break the planes of the content leads a reader’s eye down the page. Plus, it brings in younger, more inventor-focused visual elements, aligning this site with its target audience of engaged students of all ages.
Like any tree, any project needs the right components to grow correctly. Yes& knew that our decades of experience with member-based organizations could support the team and help make the strategy a reality.
We love working with communications and strategy teams to help bring their ideas to the web. Doing that for an organization like AF&PA, with sustainability first of mind, made the project even better.
