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Urgent Action Fund

urgentactionfund.org

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Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism has supported feminist activists across the globe for over 25 years. They provide fast, flexible support to women, trans and non-binary activists so that they can respond to unexpected risks and opportunities, and protect and care for themselves and one another. We designed and developed Urgent Action Fund’s new website, focusing on accessibility and impact.

a selection of screengrabs from Urgent Action Fund's website. Outsized text is used for titles and statistics, along with circle motifs, which frame photographs and secondary pull-out stats.
Credits

UX Research and Design: Eva Kamenetski

UI Design: Alaïs de Saint Louvent and Zoe Tang

Development: Sofiia Bondarenko

UAF wanted a modern and engaging platform that would integrate with their previous brand identity. We took inspiration from the world of activism, with a focus on power and strength.

examples of the mobile layout for UAF's 'Who We Are' page. The designs differ depending on the mobile screensize, so on larger frames, the image sits beside the title text and on smaller mobile screens, images sit above titles and body copy.

We conveyed UAF’s call for equity, empowerment and community strength through the use of bold typography and editorial cut-outs. It was important for us to balance the client’s hopes for a playful and engaging user experience with accessibility requirements, page loading speeds and energy usage. As a result, limited animated elements and created a motif with bold circular frames, which convey UAF’s bold, down-to-earth ethos in an accessible and sustainable way.

We designed Urgent Action Fund’s website with a modular layout, featuring reusable, flexible blocks. This approach allows clients to update and add content to their site without needing to pull in specialists or web developers.

Throughout the site, we’ve used bold sans-serif titles, chunky blocks and friendly circles, extending and adapting UAF’s legacy branding. Our aspiration here was to create an inclusive but strong atmosphere on the website.

UAF homepage with titles backed by uneven blocks of colour and cut-out images on the left and a black and white image of a woman with traditional tattoos and headdress on the right

History and mission still from UAF site. Feature a bold sans serif title, buttons and a series of circular visual motifs, with a cut-out image of a person holding a trans flag.

Frame from UAF website with a sage green, text-only header and links, above a full-width black and white image.

Block from UAF website, showing key stats in large sans serif font and blocks of colour from the UAF colour palette (clay, dusky blue, lavender).

Preview of blog, featuring a full width banner image of a woman with a microphone and sans serif typography on an off-white background.

Board of directors web page with circular icons showing headshots of team members and each team members name, title and pronouns.

desktop screengrab from UAF, with full width image and a cropped circle with text overlain

UAF homepage with titles backed by uneven blocks of colour and cut-out images on the left and a black and white image of a woman with traditional tattoos and headdress on the right

History and mission still from UAF site. Feature a bold sans serif title, buttons and a series of circular visual motifs, with a cut-out image of a person holding a trans flag.

Frame from UAF website with a sage green, text-only header and links, above a full-width black and white image.

Block from UAF website, showing key stats in large sans serif font and blocks of colour from the UAF colour palette (clay, dusky blue, lavender).

Preview of blog, featuring a full width banner image of a woman with a microphone and sans serif typography on an off-white background.

Board of directors web page with circular icons showing headshots of team members and each team members name, title and pronouns.

desktop screengrab from UAF, with full width image and a cropped circle with text overlain

Still from 'What We Do' page, which features an animated video on the left and a small text box on the right.

All the websites we design are ‘responsive’, which means the layout and functionality adapt according to screen size). This was a particular priority for Urgent Action Fund, whose previous website hadn’t adapted well to mobile. You can see examples of this in the images above: for example, on mobile, the menu takes up a full page and features Accordion Blocks to limit the amount of information according to screen size.

We designed this website with a ‘mobile first’ approach. Because the bulk of UAF’s traffic comes from mobile, and their audience might be more likely to own a mobile than a laptop, it made sense to start here and adapt to desktop, rather than the other way round.

Every time we design a new website, we learn as much as we can about our client’s audience, so the decisions we make as designers properly serve the people who will be using the platform.

still from UAF homepage, with titles backed by uneven blocks of colour and cut-out images on circles of colour, along with body copy

a screengrab of the interactive map we created for UAF, where visitors can filer by country to see if UAF has projects in that country

screengrab of UAF site for mobile, with full-width image and body copy

screengrab of how main stats stack on mobile: they take up full-screen width

screengrab of Grantmaking page for mobile. At the top of the page is an image of two people on horseback in a desert, overlain with block capital text reading 'Grantmaking.'

A screengrab from UAF's website, featuring a sage green block and a black and white image in a circular frame of two hands holding each other

still from UAF homepage, with titles backed by uneven blocks of colour and cut-out images on circles of colour, along with body copy

a screengrab of the interactive map we created for UAF, where visitors can filer by country to see if UAF has projects in that country

screengrab of UAF site for mobile, with full-width image and body copy

screengrab of how main stats stack on mobile: they take up full-screen width

screengrab of Grantmaking page for mobile. At the top of the page is an image of two people on horseback in a desert, overlain with block capital text reading 'Grantmaking.'

A screengrab from UAF's website, featuring a sage green block and a black and white image in a circular frame of two hands holding each other

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