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Nonprofit

Offering human-centered research and design methods

Bellwether Education Partners (BEP) is a national nonprofit transforming education to ensure systematically marginalized young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities.

Fíonta partnered with BEP to design a Drupal 8 website toolkit, offering human-centered research and design methods for education policy professionals. This rich resource now supports practitioners across public education organizations, policymakers, and providers.

Disjointed, inefficient processes hindered resource accessibility and broad stakeholder appeal, while strict grant constraints added pressure to meet timelines.

01
Resource accessibility

The need for an appealing and user-friendly website with downloadable tools such as checklists, interview guides, and process maps was crucial to supporting practitioners effectively.

02
Grant constraints and timeline

The project’s strict grant constraints meant adhering to a tight timeline, adding pressure to deliver within limited timeframes.

03
Broad stakeholder appeal

The toolkit had to cater to various stakeholders, including peer consulting firms, think tanks, lawmakers, and legislative staff, requiring a balance between rigor and approachability.

Fíonta collaborated closely with BEP to design a visually appealing and easy-to-navigate Drupal website. The content-first approach allowed users to easily access and download tools while providing custom content types for individual tools and summary pages. Training sessions equipped the BEP team to enter content efficiently, ensuring a smooth sprint toward launch in just six months.

Bellwether navigation

Efficient content entry

Early content entry training empowered the BEP team to contribute to content while development was underway, leading to timely and successful project completion.

Custom content types

Drupal’s flexibility allowed for custom content types, enabling the presentation of individual tools and brief descriptions on summary pages.

User-centric design

Fíonta focused on user needs, creating an intuitive interface that facilitates browsing, reading, and downloading valuable resources.

Bellwether Education Partners now offers an additional authoritative, rich resource to its partners across the spectrum of public education organizations, policymakers, and providers. The toolkit can be easily and cost-effectively maintained by existing BEP resources.

Bellwether toolkit design

Our resourcing team staffs each project with care. Team members involved in this initiative included the following:
Project manager

A project manager oversees all aspects of a project, including budget, schedule, scope, and risk management. They work closely with the technical lead to manage and escalate risk and act as the main point of contact with clients and internally, providing regular updates on the project’s progress.

User Experience (UX) consultant

A UX Consultant ensures that systems provide users a meaningful and usable experience. They involve users early in the project and prioritize their needs and goals, ensuring that the systems meet requirements and create value for the end users.

Drupal developer

A Drupal developer is an expert in configuring, developing, and styling websites using the Drupal CMS. With a vast array of knowledge in coding languages, the Drupal developer transitions designs into new functionality, customizing Drupal modules and sometimes building custom code.

User Interface (UI) designer

A UI designer brings technical requirements to life by creating beautiful visuals for any web-based interface. They will work closely with developers and User Experience (UX) consultants to ensure the designs meet all requirements, project scope, and accessibility standards and represent the organization’s unique brand.