211 Illinois serves as the statewide hub connecting people in crisis to essential resources like housing, food assistance, and mental health services.
As the coordinating organization for Illinois’s 211 network, they need to clearly communicate their unique role while helping individuals quickly find the specific help they need.
Their website must serve both as a resource directory and as a platform showcasing their statewide leadership.
211 Illinois was working with a generic website template that didn’t reflect their important role in coordinating statewide crisis response.
The design needed updating to better serve their dual audience — individuals seeking immediate help and stakeholders who needed to understand 211 Illinois’s leadership position. They also faced the challenge of adhering to national 211 brand guidelines while creating something distinctly their own.
The existing site struggled to effectively guide help seekers to appropriate resources while simultaneously establishing credibility as the head of state efforts. Visitors weren’t sure whether they were in the right place for direct assistance or organizational information, creating confusion during moments when clarity matters most.
Key challenges included:
The core questions we tackled for this project included:
How do you differentiate your organization and communicate your unique statewide role while staying true to a national brand identity and guidelines?
How do you make it as easy as possible for very distinct audiences to find what they need — including people in times of crisis?
Through strategy and alignment workshops, we identified 211 Illinois’s unique position within the broader 211 network and explored how to honor national brand requirements while creating a distinct identity that reflected their statewide coordination role. We worked to understand both their direct service visitors and their stakeholder audience.
UX research revealed how different visitor types navigated the site and where they encountered confusion about 211 Illinois’s specific role. We developed two design directions that balanced brand compliance with local differentiation, ensuring the final approach would serve both individual help seekers and organizational stakeholders effectively.
The new website clearly establishes 211 Illinois’s leadership role in statewide crisis response while maintaining seamless integration with national 211 branding. Visitors can quickly understand whether they need direct resources or organizational information, with clear pathways for both user types. The updated design reflects their professional statewide coordination role while remaining accessible to people in crisis.
The refreshed approach differentiates 211 Illinois within the national network without compromising brand consistency. Staff now have a digital presence that accurately represents their unique position and effectively serves their diverse audience needs.
The organization feels confident directing both help seekers and stakeholders to their website, knowing it clearly communicates their dual role.
Over the course of a few months, we helped 211 Illinois transform from a generic template website into a distinctive digital platform that clearly communicates their statewide leadership while seamlessly serving help seekers (and speaking to their many other audiences).
Ready to see how thoughtful design can help your nonprofit better communicate your unique role? Book a call with us to explore what’s possible.
Schedule a free 20-minute strategy session with Austin and Andrea. We’ll talk about where you’ve been, where you’d like to go, and how your website can help you get there.