Natural Areas Conservancy

UX Project Management Content Strategy

The Natural Areas Conservancy is a longstanding nonprifit that works closely in partnership with NYC Parks and City government to protect the natural areas in and around the five boroughs. Through maintenance and care of these spaces, as well as advocacy and education, the NAC works to keep natural spaces healthy and accessible for visitors as well as wildlife.

NAC approached us at Studio Simpatico to help them create a new website completely from scratch. Their existing site was quite minimal, and did not tell their story in a satisfactory way. They wanted to push their fundraising abilities and needed a fully realized site in order to plant their flag properly, and we were thrilled to help them.

I led this project from a strategy and user experience lens, and worked closely with the visual design team on the overarching concepting and visual directions work. We began the process with discovery, speaking with members of NAC staff across disciplines, from trail maintenance to data management and environmental research. From there I created a brand new site map that took into account all aspects of the site, and integrating in some resources and microsites that the org had been used externally.

The wireframing phase allowed our two teams to really dig in to how to tell the story of NAC. What were their priorities, what needed to be fleshed out? What kinds of impact and engagement were they trying to convey, and how could we do that in the most appealing way? Once wireframes were complete, we had a blueprint for a modular site that was ready for visual design.