Wellness Wishes

For the festive period in December 2019, Montrose Software set up an initiative to offer a free software development project to a good cause. Montrose contacted 400 charitable organisations within the United States, informing them of the opportunity, and conducting many meetings and reviews of the current state of their online offering. After careful consideration, and discussions based on the requirements of the projects we assessed, we decided to work with Wellness Wishes. For more information on the charity and its causes, please read below.

Wellness Wishes is an Ohio-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, serving efforts nationwide across the United States. Founded in 2011, the organization has really flourished since 2018 when the current President, Erin Morrow, took over operations full-time. Since then, Erin has led Wellness Wishes to implement various programs and services, all of which can be identified under four primary areas of impact: Underserved Areas in Healthcare, Veterans, First Responders, and Conservation and Education. Unique in the nonprofit world, Wellness Wishes imparts a more traditional business model as a funding vehicle to fund not only their programs and services, but those of like-minded other nonprofits and organizations as well. Funding Advisors Claims Recovery (FACR) is this funding vehicle, and it’s generating much-needed funds for healthcare organizations, as well as philanthropy and community efforts, and non-profits of all types across the country.

Wellness Wishes reached out to Montrose Software asking for a conversation, due to the fact that they had a website on Wix, but the website had not been completed by the previous developer. This meant that they had to complete the project alone, and felt that there could be many improvements and enhancements made, in order to bring much more of a visual image to their cause. After reviewing the work that the charity is doing, along with having very warm and encouraging meetings with Erin, the decision was obvious that we wanted to work with Wellness Wishes and support their cause.

We conducted a review with Erin, learning her expectations, along with gaining awareness of the users, their needs, and what she wanted to promote. This was carried out with a brief and teleconference meetings. The purpose, goal, and best practices of the charity organisation was also vital. We learnt that they wanted an easily accessible website, which could be built on continuously, displaying a visual context of the Wellness Wishes message, and which would help to raise funds and promote their potential clients. The website is most important to the causes they represent, driving people towards wanting to contribute, and supporting those that are seeking to apply for funding. Users include individuals, corporate sponsors, partners, non-profits, and others that are seeking help and support.

The initial plan was to redesign and modernise the website, repair elements that were not working correctly, align all fonts, sizing, and colours, which will incorporate a style across the entire site, and place all this in a clear and informative architectural structure.

From the steps above, Montrose reviewed the tools available in Wix, and how to fully utilise them. Then wireframes and sketches were made, providing Wellness Wishes with our ideas, in which they were able to review and decide on the right look and style for them. Prototypes were built, which displayed a full concept based on the research and discovery phase. The prototypes included a style guide based on the current image, colour, and brand guidelines, along with having a template for all the pages, which was based on a simple and clear format, easy to use, header images, text outlines, and URL renaming. This included unification of colours, fonts, sizes, pictures, hover boxes and button states, a mobile version, a redesign of the menu structure, and complete rebuilding of certain pages. These were all reviewed and discussed with Erin, and Montrose design and project management team.

Redesign to create a better fit for Wellness Wishes, along with improving UX and UI for users. The previous architecture was cluttered and not intuitive, with menu options and format out of place.

Redesign of the header image, along with creating a slideshow of the current events and campaigns of Wellness Wishes. There was also a redesign for Areas of Impact, the link for Funding Advisors, Contact Us and Contact Form, along with changing the order of elements for solving the needs of the organisation and users more effectively.

Alongside the redesign for the Home Page, there was also a complete redesign and structuring for About Us, Partners / Notable Non-Profits, and Collaboration pages too.

A redesign of the complete structure, which meant that a main page was designed and created, with subpages made for each of the programs. Each program has its own link. With the subpages, header images and text were selected and implemented to highlight the purpose of each, and to characterise each of Wellness Wishes programs.

Main page and subpages had a complete redesign. Subpages are made with a set template for each, in order to build a visual structure, and then content was implemented to bring character and personality to each of the topics.

New page was designed and built, in-order to display a higher level of credibility, validity, and to make the connection with Wellness Wishes much easier.

The blog was unified with the website, making the blog an additional feature. In the previous website, the blog was a long list of articles which needed to be scrolled through, so a search option was implemented, giving users the ability to search through a tag structure.

Wellness Wishes now have a complete website, bringing to life the visual aspects of the charity organisation, and its morals, values, and characteristics. Not only this, but they have the structure to continue to develop and grow their message through their online presence. Montrose Software and Wellness Wishes have built and nurtured a strong working relationship, and it was an enjoyable experience for both sides. With the project now completed, Wellness Wishes feel that they have the foundations in place to continuously enhance in their journey, and Montrose Software is proud to have been a part of this. During the website development process, Montrose Software’s team ensured that Wellness Wishes were guided on how to carry out future changes and enhancements themselves, meaning that they would be able to maintain and improve their own website as they move forward. A wonderful project, with a wonderful team of people, and the result of Montrose Software’s Christmas Charity project is something we are all proud to have been a part of.