August is birthday month for Tshikululu, one of South Africa’s leading social investment managers. This year, Tshikululu celebrated its 15th birthday and – in the same month – the launch of its all-new website.
“Well, it’s just popped up, and it’s quite a rush to see it. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I love it. It really does encapsulate Tshikululu as an organisation and brand far more than the old one ever did, and is a vast improvement in many other respects. It suddenly feels like 2013,” says Tshikululu’s communications manager, Dan Maré.
“Design, structure, and feel are outstanding. I’m already getting excited squeaks from my colleagues,” he adds.
Flow is delighted to have wrapped up and dropped off the best 15th birthday gift ever – a custom-designed, multi-purpose website just for Tshikululu.
Drafted, developed and designed by a team of experienced Flowstars – Colin Ford as project manager, Kate Rau as site editor, Darren Caboz as lead programmer and Lorraine Gumede as art director – the website speaks to a dual audience of NGOs looking for funding in the CSI arena, and JSE-listed corporates looking to outsource their CSI fund management.
Programming the user experience
“Developing a clear and user-friendly architecture was paramount when developing this site,” says Darren, who led the development and programming of the website.
“We started off with a three-tier user experience based on funding, services and expertise, and then built in additional web elements including a blog, video gallery, slide toggles and interactive content wheels, as well as a news section that relates content to both clients and authors.
“The primary and secondary target user groups had different user journeys, which played a role in user experience testing and planning in the early stages of the site development,” he says.
Design to follow function
Lorraine, who led the site design, opted for a professional look-and-feel to drive a clear user journey, an appearance that was best suited to the Tshikululu brand and greater social investment financial sector.
“The use of a simple and classic font, combined with muted tones and primary colours to highlight aspects of the site, made for a sophisticated online corporate identity,” she says.
“The site design was also dictated by its expected function, so we created a simple homepage that spoke to three main drivers of website traffic – services, funds and expertise. We profiled Tshikululu’s services model and expertise in a series of infographics that drive interaction on the homepage,” she added.
A relationship with heart
“Tshikululu is a company that focuses on the sustainable upliftment of South African communities, which means there’s a lot of ‘heart’ in everything it does,” says Colin, who project-managed the site development. “Working on this project was extra-special because we knew that, in a small way, we were contributing to responsible social investment in SA.
“We’re looking forward to the work that lies ahead in terms of ongoing content maintenance and social networking, which will further communicate the organisation’s values and all the good work that it does in the sphere of responsible social investment in South Africa.”