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.

In search of clarity

In the last few decades, their website has changed several times. But mostly, it kept growing into a Frankenstein-like web of complexity and content. They had literally thousands of pages and a dozen “subsites.” And they had lots of trouble having their website reflect the relevance of their active, dynamic organization or of their beautiful, woodland home.

The Sisters of Providence knew that their users had trouble finding things. Additionally, their website used words and structures that made sense to organization insiders, but not to the outside public. The marketing team also was looking forward to the opportunity to bring their site visually up to date and in line with current best practices. Above all, they wanted a user-friendly approach.

How we helped

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Working with their team, Christina helped them delete hundreds of outdated or no-longer-useful posts from their site.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.

Brand extension & design system

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.

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

Website build

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.

Welcoming, enjoyable, inspiring

The result 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