THE CLIENT:

Level Ground MMA, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing discipline and community mentorship to Boston urban youth through the teachings of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

THE CHALLENGE:

Startup Institute teamed up with Level Ground to present the IdeaHack Challenge which asked teams to propose a marketing strategy and to redesign a website landing page. Level Ground would use ideas from teams’ proposals to help launch a Corporate Wellness Program with the goals of:

1. Increasing exposure to new clients; and
2. Bringing additional funding to support youth programs.

THE SCOPE:

Five-person cross-functional team. 24 hours to complete.

UX/UI SKILLS USED:

Visual Design, Wireframing, Information Architecture, Research.

TOOLS USED:

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Balsamiq, InVision, pen and paper.

THE PROCESS:

To successfully create the marketing plan for the Corporate Wellness Plan we needed to analyze the target user and market. First we met with Level Ground to discuss their specific needs and goals. We also interviewed similar organizations to examine their business models as well as the users and supporters of those organizations. Recognizing that their current model was unsustainable due to an inability to scale, too narrow of a target market, and insufficient funds to promote growth, we determined that the new marketing plan needed to target the large class of Boston-based and Boston-centric companies who are most likely to give back to their community and support organizations in the city. Additionally, a reliance needed to not only be placed on raising money via bootcamp training sessions, but to be sustainable a sizable amount must also come from donations.

Having diagnosed the target user, we began organizing, synthesizing, and prioritizing information. Level Ground's original website design was cluttered and had no clear call-to-action; there was a lack of immediate information on how the organization impacted. We wanted to create an experience that was clean and crisp with an obvious call-to-action presented to the user. For individuals who might be new to the site or unfamiliar with Level Ground, we needed to provide the necessary information clearly and concisely.

THE SOLUTION:

Beginning with a whiteboard brainstorming session, we developed the marketing plan and prioritized the most important features to highlight on the homepage. I created a high-fidelity mock-up of a landing page using Photoshop and used this to develop working prototype in InVision. The resulting design can be implemented responsively and used as a template for a redesigned Level Ground homepage.