
We were commissioned to design and develop an accessible, authoritative website, tailored to low-bandwidth environments like DRC for the Conflict Sensitivity Hub, an expertise center that trains and supports humanitarian, development and peace organisations to better understand and consider the Congolese context when delivering aid.
The website is designed to share research, training tools, and resources for humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding professionals globally.
As a platform for professionals to access research and tools that aid in conflict sensitivity, it provides information on the Hub’s services, and shares content with donors and peers.
The scope included:
The Conflict Sensitivity Hub had a skeletal brand identity that had been created, but there was a need to evolve and adapt this for the website, bringing in a group of wider gones to the core palette, and establishing parameters for typography and colour usage.
Considering the technical constraints of the DRC, the design had to balance simplicity and authority. A clean and modern layout was adopted to ensure a professional appearance. A minimalist interface was chosen to reduce page load times while offering easy navigation. Key elements included:
With many users expected to access the site via mobile devices, particularly in developing regions, the website was designed mobile-first. Our approach has ensured that the site is equally functional on mobile phones, tablets, and desktops. This approach also aligned with the goal of accessibility in low-bandwidth settings, as mobile designs tend to be leaner in terms of data consumption.
The site required English and French language options to serve its audience. A language switcher was implemented on the homepage, allowing users to toggle between languages easily. All content, from navigation to resources, was fully translated to ensure accessibility across the target audience.
Given that non-technical staff will manage the website, the backend interface is designed to be highly user-friendly. This ensures that adding new content, updating resources, and managing users can be done without any need for extensive training.
The website will need to host a large repository of research documents and training tools. To enable users to easily locate relevant resources, we placed a categorised listing page with filters at the heart of the content discovery experience. This allows users to search resources by topic, language, and type of document, streamlining access to critical information.
The website was built following SEO best practices, ensuring that it will be easily discoverable by search engines and visible to the target audience. Additionally, analytics tools have been integrated to track user engagement, downloads, and page visits. The dashboard allows for easy monitoring of the site’s performance and user interaction by the CS-Hub team, without requiring technical expertise.
The website was built to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensuring it is accessible to users with disabilities. This includes ensuring proper contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader compatibility.
The Conflict Sensitivty Hub website provides an essential platform for sharing conflict sensitivity research and tools. Serving a diverse, multilingual audience its best-practice design and development will ensure its easily discoverable, highly usable and has the potential to grow and expand over time as the organisation and the needs of its audiences develop.
Alexandra Ilieva Senior Digital Communications Officer International AlertWorking with Design Culture was a fantastic experience. From discovery to brand definition, the team led us efficiently and effectively. Their solutions-oriented approach, attention to detail and professionalism provided reassurance every step of the way. Design Culture delved into the core ethos of our project and helped us showcase it on the website to ensure the best possible experience for our audiences. We're pleased with the result and look forward to developing the site with them further.