Serve Ethiopians Washington
Client: Serve Ethiopians Washington (SEW) — Armaye Eshete, Nagessa Dube, SeaTac, WA
Scope: Website redesign and development, information architecture, content refinement, SEO implementation
Role: Design, UX, front-end implementation
Platform: Squarespace
Timeline: November 2024 – March 2025
URL: serveethiopians.org
Context: Serve Ethiopians Washington is a community-based nonprofit dedicated to environmental sustainability, volunteerism, and holistic community support. Its programs span environmental stewardship and restoration alongside youth development, workforce training, senior services, and basic needs assistance.
The existing website did not fully communicate the breadth of SEW’s work or effectively support engagement goals such as donations, volunteer signups, and partner visibility.
The Challenge: The primary challenge was to clarify and unify SEW’s diverse initiatives within a single, coherent digital structure—one that foregrounded environmental leadership while remaining inclusive of the organization’s broader social impact.
The site needed to:
Clearly articulate SEW’s mission and service areas
Encourage volunteer participation and donations
Strengthen credibility through partner recognition
Improve discoverability through search optimization
Remain easy to maintain and scale over time
The Approach: The redesign focused on clarity, hierarchy, and mission-forward storytelling rather than visual novelty. Content was reorganized to guide visitors through SEW’s work intuitively, with clear pathways to action.
Environmental stewardship was positioned as a central narrative thread, supported by strong imagery and concise messaging, while additional programs were integrated into a clear, navigable structure.
Design Approach
Mission-led visual system
Photography featuring SEW’s team in active environmental and community work reinforced authenticity and impact.
Structured content hierarchy
The Home and What We Do pages were reorganized to surface key service areas quickly, helping visitors understand scope without cognitive overload.
Action-oriented pathways
Donation and volunteer calls to action were made more prominent and consistent across the site to support engagement goals.
Partner visibility as infrastructure
Partner logs were standardized in size and presentation, and a dedicated Partners page was created to recognize collaborators while improving SEO and outbound linking.
Search-aware implementation
Sitewide metadata and page-specific SEO descriptions were implemented to increase visibility and support long-term growth.
Responsive, accessible layout
The site was designed to function seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent user experience for a wide audience.
The Result: The redesigned website presents Serve Ethiopians Washington as a cohesive, mission-driven organization with a clear environmental focus and strong community roots. Visitors can now quickly understand SEW’s work, explore programs, and take meaningful action through donations or volunteering.
The site also provides a flexible foundation for future growth, partnerships, and program expansion.
What This Project Demonstrates
Designing nonprofit websites as engagement systems, not static brochures
Balancing environmental storytelling with multi-program clarity
Using information architecture to support mission comprehension
Integrating SEO and partner recognition into core site structure
Creating scalable, maintainable Squarespace implementations
