Revolutionizing Education: Education Cannot Wait Digital Transformation with Apexify Web Development Guidance
Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the UN system. Hosted by UNICEF the fund supports educational initiatives for children living amid humanitarian crises, including wars and natural disasters. ECW supports and protects holistic learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced, and other crisis-affected girls and boys in many of the world’s most destabilized regions.
Driven by a vision of a world where all children and youth affected by crises can learn free of cost, in safety and without fear, ECW works to foster the necessary political, operational, and financial commitment to meet the educational needs of children in the world’s crisis zones and provide responses that are fast, agile, and conducive to the development of sustainable educational systems.
ECW’s website at educationcannotwait.org is one of its core digital communications platforms. The organization relies heavily on this site to communicate with its key stakeholders, which include governments, other UN agencies, civil society organizations, youth activists, and other actors in the aid world as well as current and potential public and private donors.
ECW relies heavily on its website, educationcannotwait.org, to engage with key stakeholders including governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and donors. However, the original WordPress site was outdated and lacked user-friendliness in design and functionality.
It presented challenges in content management, hindering effective dissemination of information and updates. Recognizing the need for a revamped website to better communicate its global impact and align with UN web design standards, ECW was looking for a solution to bridge the gap and enhance its online presence.
We began our work with ECW with a series of discovery exercises, including meetings with key stakeholders, focus groups, and an analysis of requirements. Through this process, we concluded that the client’s needs could not be addressed through any quick fixes and that an entirely new website was required.
We translated our findings from the discovery phase into designs and wireframes. New features would include an interactive world map, an optimized news section, an easy-to-navigate resource library, and an organizational structure that emphasizes real people’s stories and ECW’s impact.
The ECW project was a top-to-bottom transformation of a largely static site into a dynamic, engaging digital hub befitting the dynamic and ambitious organization it represents.
Once we had completed the discovery phase, we developed a user journey map together with the client that informed the subsequent design of the site. This map informed our content strategy, which included a new layout for the site’s main menu.
The launch of the new ECW site was immediately accompanied by an increase in page views and session durations and decreased bounce rates, as well as a noticeable upticks in site revisits and positive public mentions and conversations around the organization.
All this work culminated in a nomination for an Acquia Engage Award for 2023 in the category of “Leaders of the Pack – NGO or Non-Profit”. In the words of Acquia’s own case study on the new site, the new site’s agility “empowers ECW to stay responsive to emerging needs and evolving circumstances [and] ensures that ECW’s digital presence remains relevant and indispensable.”
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