Partners for Better Housing - Digital Storytelling
Partners for Better Housing is releasing a three year impact report in early 2025. The goal of this report is not only to communicate the impact they’ve made over recent years, but to tell the story of the organization. Partners for Better Housing has also expressed a desire to frame their work using personal stories, and find ways to communicate about their impact beyond statistics. My peer, Kaitlyn Agnitti, and I collaborated with PfBH to design an artifact that will work in tandem with the impact report, to tell the story about Partners for Better Housing and the organization’s impact.
Based on the requests from PfBH and our research findings, Kaitlyn and I proposed the design of a single web page that replaces the current site’s home page. The new design will act as an entry point to viewing different types of impact made (possibly even linking to a full version of a future impact report.) As the home page, it will also be an introduction the organization as a whole.
The color and type systems for the page were informed by PfBH’s current branding, but I expanded both to support a an elevated design. Our contact at Partners felt that their current type system, which consisted solely of Montserrat, didn’t feel “hip” enough and it’s width was often inconvenient. In response, I introduced Sofia Sans Condensed as a bold and flexible alternative for the heading typeface.
I also developed an illustration style that could add more visual flair to the site, and be a storytelling device all its own.
It builds off PfBH’s existing logo design with expanded meaning. The geometric angles and connecting lines evoke those of neighborhood blocks. The budding houses, branching off of vine-like streets, communicate growth and connection. Overall the style offers a variety of opportunities when used throughout the page.
The flow of the content is informed by an existing narrative guide that Partners uses: Prosperity Begins with Place: A Narrative Guide. It outlines a framework for communication using a Values → Problem → Solution → Action talking sequence. It also includes 1 minute messages for each stage of the sequence, ways to amplify the narrative, and suggested content buckets. We structured the site content into four main sections, one for each stage of the framework.
The full page design is featured above. We delivered the design to Partners for Better Housing along with a list of next steps needed for full content development.
The full page design is featured above. We delivered the design to Partners for Better Housing along with a list of next steps needed for full content development.