FemaleFounded

Revamped brand and website for a Princeton-based conference celebrating and connecting female entrepreneurs of all levels.

My Role

Visual & Product Designer

Duration

May 2024 - June 2024

TOOLS

Figma, FigJam, Webflow

Team

Collaborated on Site Direction with Director Board Input

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The FemaleFounded Conference is looking to elevate its brand identity to be both professional and fun for future attendees, executives, and donors.

Hosting its first conference in 2023, the FemaleFounded Conference connected ~100 students with 35 accomplished female entrepreneurs. As the conference grows, they aim to expand their reach in 2024.

As a Visual and Product Designer, I audited the conference’s brand identity and website, incorporating input from the Director Board to create a fresh brand guideline and design a seamless digital experience for all participants.

OVERVIEW

FemaleFounded — At a Glance

Revamped Website's Homepage

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RESEARCH

Areas of Opportunity

I began the revamp process by auditing previous FemaleFounded brand materials (pictured) to identify areas for brand enhancement.

Simplify the color palette, focusing on dark green and purple for a bold look; use their shades for more complex designs.

Shift to a text-based logo. As the conference is open to female and female-identifying participants, it's best to stay neutral and avoid direct suggestions, an issue in the current illustration.

Use the Megaphone as another logomark. We can maintain a previous element by transforming the megaphone into a logo.

FemaleFounded > Female Founded. There are inconsistencies in the conference title; the former feels like a name, while the latter reads like a phrase.

RESEARCH

Exploring Other Conference Websites

With these brand enhancements in mind, I researched other conference websites, such as the Forbes Power Women’s Summit and the CWE Women of Color Business Summit, to study their presentation of information.

KEY FINDINGS

I identified that these conference websites all shared:

Call to Action Buttons Immediately for Registration

Credibility through Sponsors Displayed on Homepage

Short and Catchy Display of the Conference Theme and/or Phrase

IDEATE

Improving the Website

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

This information architecture (IA) retains most elements of the previous site, but with an emphasis on improving homepage content and the intentionality of the tabs. With the conference shifting its offerings and aiming to encourage applications and donations from site visitors, I tailored the IA to support these goals.

FRESH BRANDING

The Directors wanted to keep green and purple as the primary colors for the conference. Instead of using these colors predominantly for text and background colors (which caused contrast issues in the previous site), I found them more effective as banner and accent colors, with black and white as the website's foundation.

FEATURE HIGHLIGHT

Speaker Cards

To highlight our speakers I thought it best to integrate pop-up cards for students to learn about the speakers. In the cards, I included the headshots and bios they had sent over to the FemaleFounded team.

I also added a dropdown menu to filter different speaker types to ease the process of finding speakers for student needs.

FEATURE HIGHLIGHT

Crediting Conference Donors

Displaying donor logos onto our website is a part of their donorship package. To achieve this, I designed a simple scroll-through with the opportunity to "View All Donors" in which users of the website can learn more about the donors and visit their socials.

INTEGRATING INTO SOCIAL MEDIA

With this new brand guideline, I also implemented it into our social media for a smooth transition between the website and social channels, and vice versa.

FINAL DESIGN

A New FemaleFounded

REFLECTION

Results

Increased accessibility score by 15% through consistent guidelines.

Improved user conversion with a 30% application rate through the site.

Website shared and viewed by 200+ executives and students

REFLECTION

Project Learnings

It's OKAY to be Imperfect

Going into this redesign, I was initially held back by the desire to deliver a perfect, seamless website experience. But who defines perfection? I approached the ideation process by thinking like a potential student applicant while balancing the Director Board's wants and needs. It was challenging to meet both, but I trusted my decisions to create the best synergy.

After all, there's no such thing as a perfect design! It's okay to put something out there and iterate. Although we've launched the website, I've continued to make small improvements as new information and changes are introduced. These adjustments matter, and I've learned a lot from these imperfections and design choices.

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