G-dcast.com Redesign
Creative Brief
Summary
G-dcast.com was designed by a non-designer over three years ago. Now, with hundreds of thousands of viewers and lots of attention, it deserves a remake. The goal is to freshen up the site’s navigation, color palette, and overall user experience. Users should feel a fun sense of welcome and whimsy, understand what the project is, and find what they’re looking for easily.
Current Situation
The site performs well and holds user attention fairly successfully, but has some problem areas. Here’s what’s not working:
1. Navigation issues
a. Too hard to find a specific video
b. Unclear what you’re looking at if you’re not already “in the know” about Judaism
c. Not enough oomph pushing users to donate and register for mailing list
d. Rethinking of sales flow for merchandise
e. Rethinking of Teachers’ Guides – what to give away, what to put behind a wall, and how to do it most strategically – balancing metrics against sustainability issues
f. Marketing 3 new company divisions: Education, Entertainment and Collaborations
2. Graphic design
a. Site should better reflect our brand personality: playful, “irreverently reverent,” welcoming, humourous, inclusive, for all types of people – including non-Jews
b. Site could feel more tech-trendy and with the times
c. Site should adapt well to mobile devices
d. Rethink use of fonts and colors to match or complement our DVDs, etc
e. While we are not looking for an identity redesign, we are openminded about color, font or simplification tweaks to suit your overall design strategy. Nothing is set in stone.
We need a revamp of the user experience – wireframing of what should be on what page, and how the clickthroughs work. We also need a graphic design refresh. These two projects could be accomplished by one person, or by a team of two specialists working together.
Background
Our Mission
Young Jews desperately want to connect with their tradition. The way to reach them is to create meaning out of the jumble. Stories are the sources of meaning, the WHY behind the laws, practices and culture of the Jewish people. Regardless of whether you connect Jewishly through the arts, spirituality, religious observance, social justice or community, stories underlie it all.
G-dcast’s mission: to move the needle on knowledge of our stories; to bring the People of the Book back up to speed. We are a non profit production company dedicated to raising basic Jewish literacy using the tools and storytelling style that speaks to today’s youth where they are – online – not where we wish they were. We value…
- Pluralism & Diversity – We create content that speaks to Jews wherever they are – geographically and on the observance spectrum – and reflect the diversity of the Jewish community through all of our choices in writing, interpretation and visual representation.
- Accessibility – We make work that is engaging, clear and easy to understand, regardless of cultural/educational background or language spoken.
- Affordable – Jewish texts belong to everyone. We make learning available regardless of ability to pay or proximity to institutions.
- Great storytelling – G-dcast clearly delineates educational goals for each project, but won’t sacrifice story to them. Our films, apps and games will have compelling narratives that appeal to broad audiences with universal themes.
Target Audiences
G-dcast focuses on three main audiences:
1. Unaffiliated Jewish and interfaith families that include Jewish children at least 10 years old.
2. Unaffiliated young adults 18-45 who search for Jewish information online because they don’t necessarily connect with religious institutions.
3. Teachers, rabbis and peer educators of Jewish young adults (eg, Hillel, BBYO, Moishe House)
Our Programs
We produce content, curriculum, live events, newsletters and online conversations. Current programs are divided into three divisions:
1. G-dcast Education: Our animated series for web, mobile and DVD. Each episode is accompanied by a Teachers’ Guide:
- G-dcast: The Torah: 55 episode series covering the entire Torah, portion by portion
- G-dcast: The Holidays: An 8 part series about the Jewish holidays
2. G-dcast Entertainment: animated shorts for young adults, to be released in the Fall of 2011
3. G-dcast Collaborations: Our work for hire division, creating animated shorts for other organizations
Project Requirements
1. Consultants can work from anywhere, but presentations should be made via Skype or in person in San Francisco.
2. Strategies must be implementable in Drupal. (Consultants can work with our very friendly, helpful web developer to verify ideas.)
3. Website must look great in Safari, IE, Firefox, Chrome and on major smartphones.
Timing & Process
This project should be completed by June 1. Completion means turning over wireframes and image files to our web developer in a format agreed upon between you and him.
All work will be reviewed and signed-off by Sarah Lefton. She is responsible for internal review with her staff and advisors in a timely manner that meets designer’s needs. (As an ex-agency employee, I feel your pain!)
This is work for hire and consultants will sign a Work for Hire contract with G-dcast.
We are looking to pay a flat project fee, and can make payment in 2 chunks, 25% upfront and 75% on completion.
If the project isn’t working out for artistic reasons, a killfee of a percentage of the timeline spent on the project (20% if the project has gone on for one week out of five, etc) will be paid within 30 days of notification. All art will revert to the designer.
