Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Website project
Top photo courtesy Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
About the organization
The Sisters of Providence are a congregation of religious sisters (nuns) who surprisingly have had an online presence since 1996! Based in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, the Sisters collaborate with others to create a more just and hope-filled world through prayer, education, service and advocacy.
Project to-do list
Project milestone
Content inventory & audit
First, we started with a full content audit of their current website. We created a series of spreadsheets documenting and logging every page and post on the website. Then we gave them tools and methods to carefully work through this content inventory, balancing efficiency and completeness.
Working with their team, Christina helped them delete hundreds of outdated or no-longer-useful posts from their site. Then we took a strategic, thoughtful look at their existing site architecture. We helped them eliminate 75% of their pages, and we combined and re-organized the rest to be simpler, clearer, and more user-focused.
At every step of the way, we made sure to set up redirects and take steps to ensure that there would not be any negative effects in search engine traffic.
Project milestone
Brand extension for web
After the bulk of the content strategy work, we designed them a fresh, vibrant new visual system. They have the good fortune to be located in a beautiful tree-filled patch of Indiana and even have “of-the-Woods” in their name! So we embraced the Woods to generate a bright, natural color palette full of greens and blues that could complement and expand their existing brand. And we picked the perfect typefaces to fit right in (and be super legible).
Project milestone
Site design & development
Then we built a design system that could grow and adapt to any type of content they needed, including
- lovely full-width foundational pages with feeds and testimonials
- interior pages with clear navigation ability and breadcrumbs
- up-to-date blog posts with special design considerations for obituaries, news releases, videos and more
- a friendly, usable event calendar of upcoming programs and opportunities
- and even a fully searchable database of inspirational quotes
Finally, we worked with the communications team to implement all of the good ideas and changes into a new WordPress-run site. Tackling each need strategically, we created an organized, consistent website with room to grow.
The final site
Welcoming, enjoyable & inspiring
The result of all of our hard work is a welcoming, enjoyable, inspiring website that reflects the Sisters of Providence well and invites others to participate in their opportunities.
“When I first looked at our new website, what came to my mind was the line from a Robert Frost poem, ‘The Woods is lovely, dark and deep.’ The new colors and images presented on our website are deep and rich and really do reflect our Woodland roots.
I hear our sisters saying that every time they explore our new website, they find something new and learn something new about each other and our ministries, our associates and friends.”
Sister Dawn Tomaszewski
General Superior, Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Related Case Studies
Take the first step.
Whether you have a project in mind, need a speaker for an event, or just have a question — we'd love to hear from you.