RipplesinAfrica.org, a non-profit community-based development organization operating in Nigeria and Ghana, is committed to empowering women and fostering their leadership and economic participation within their communities. Yaji Spice, a for-profit initiative, was launched to expand its impact, promoting single-origin spices and superfoods sourced and grown by local women farmers from its community.
My role: Content strategy, information architecture, visual design, CMS, Woocommerce
Team composition: Director, graphic designer, marketing strategist, copywriter
Sketches
I began by jotting down ideas in notes and sketches, helping me gain a clearer understanding of how to align with our business goals moving forward.
Content strategy
I created page designs tailored to our target audience, product categories, and services. These layouts align with our marketing objectives, catering to businesses seeking custom spice solutions, unique blends/flavors, and product formulation services.
Our target audience includes socially responsible brands, wholesalers, hotels, hospitality establishments, and restaurants looking to elevate their offerings with premium spices and superfoods.
Visual concept
After receiving the existing assets from the graphic designer, I used the catalog as a visual foundation and explored new ideas to enhance the designs, creating a brand guideline for the website.
Working with marketing strategist
A pivotal moment for us was refining our marketing objectives to specifically target chefs and restaurants, highlighting our diverse range of categories, spice selections, and services.
New visual approach
A pivotal moment for us was refining our marketing objectives to specifically target chefs and restaurants, highlighting our diverse range of categories, spice selections, and services.
Woocommerce
New features included Mega Menu navigation, designed to highlight the importance and relationships among various product types, providing users with a smoother and more intuitive navigation experience, and enhancing their ability to explore and grasp our product offerings effectively.
Project Takeaway
Despite the entire project being conducted remotely, we successfully connected and collaborated entirely through Google Workspace. The project launched successfully. I found that my most significant contributions came from collaborative efforts when new insights and ideas were needed. Additionally, working independently proved beneficial when progress needed to move forward swiftly.
One of the most significant challenges we faced during our collaboration on this project was managing the multitude of ideas everyone wanted to incorporate. Despite our ambitious goals, limited resources—such as budget, time, and staff availability—prevented us from implementing everything. We underestimated the workload and budget required for these changes, resulting in numerous design revisions. This extended the project timeline more than anticipated.
Despite leaving the team, my experience in a non-profit setting provided me with invaluable lessons. As the sole designer, I was responsible for both designing and developing the website. One of the main challenges I faced was revisiting previous stages to accommodate new changes or ideas that emerged. Through this process, I learned to adapt quickly to revisions and implement them efficiently to ensure timely progress.