Subject: Presenting the New NDI.org!
From: "Ken Wollack" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 13:42:22 -0500

Below is the email sent today to our staff by Digital Communications
Manager Jesper Frant, announcing the launch and explaining the features of
NDI's new, redesigned website. I hope you will take the time to browse the
site and share your comments. We are all excited by this new communications
tool. Here is the link: NDI.org <https://www.ndi.org/>

With best regards,

Ken

Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: [email-masked]
website: www.ndi.org

Dear NDI Staff,

Today, we are proud to launch a completely redesigned NDI.org
<https://www.ndi.org/> website. The new website preserves the best features
of the old website, while updating underlying technology and refreshing the
design to improve usability and meet modern web standards. Here are some
key features that merit recognition:

   -

   The new site features a more visually-engaging and mobile-friendly
   design, deep social media integration and a re-structured information
   architecture that will make NDI’s work more accessible than ever before.
   With this more visual platform, NDI can more effectively highlight our
   work, showcase the efforts of our partners, and give the public a better
   understanding about Who We Are <https://ndi.org/who-we-are> and What We
   Do <https://ndi.org/what-we-do>.

   -

   Recognizing NDI’s deep pool of practical expertise on democracy and
   democratic institutions in the world, the new website provides a directory
   of our leading experts and integrates their Twitter accounts throughout the
   site. This deep social media integration, which compliments NDI’s DemWorks
   blog <https://www.demworks.org/>, reflects our dedication to
   transparency, and fostering open dialogue on democracy and democracy
   support programming.

   -

   Since Internet users are increasingly accessing NDI’s website on mobile
   devices, the new website features a tactile, responsive interface with
   swipe controls. The “responsive” website adapts to the size of the screen,
   allowing visitors on mobile phones to push, swipe and tap to navigate just
   as easily on a smartphone as on a desktop computer.

   -

   A dynamic database brings NDI’s vast Publications Library
   <https://www.ndi.org/publications> to life, allowing you to search and
   filter thousands of resources and publications without needing to refresh
   the page. Resources are color-coded by resource type in “grid view.” Or if
   you would like to peruse the results in greater detail you can switch to
   “list view.”

   -

   These same dynamic filters make one of NDI.org’s most popular features
   -- the Global Elections Calendar
   <https://www.ndi.org/elections-calendar/> -- more useful than ever. You
   can browse upcoming and past elections from around the world or filter down
   to a specific year, region, country or election type. The Calendar also
   details NDI activity in elections and lists relevant NDI statements and
   reports.

   -

   One of the most revolutionary changes in the new website is a tiered
   information architecture, often described as the “wedding cake.” The new
   site was designed with “user stories” or a visitor’s journey through the
   website in mind. On the homepage, visitors are presented with the most
   general and accessible content, but as they drill down deeper into the site
   they find more complex, detailed and specific content that is relevant to
   their unique regional <https://ndi.org/where-we-work> or topical
   <https://ndi.org/what-we-do> interests.

The design of the new website was informed by an analysis of the websites
of 20 leading democracy, governance and human-rights organizations. One
notable shortcoming revealed by this analysis was that a large percentage
of the written content on NDI’s old website required a college degree to
comprehend. Through readability testing, NDI worked to overhaul the site’s
written content to make complex topics easier to understand. Walls of text
and small, low-resolution images have been replaced by short,
comprehensible sentences and beautiful full-width photographs that tell
NDI’s story in vivid color.

I would like to thank the teams and individuals whose hard work made this
website possible. The Tech team was essential to this project -- with
special mention of Meron Menwyelet, Dean Valentine and Elizabeth Renomeron,
who made positively heroic efforts. Les Campbell, Jeff England, Michelle
Brown, Sandra Pepera, Scott Hubli, Marty Colburn, James van der Klok, Ken
Wollack and Shari Bryan provided invaluable direction during the early
stages of the project. Functional and Regional teams across the Institute
re-wrote dozens of country and functional team overviews for the new
format. Our amazing Content Authors
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dhkDVzlQi2wLVg2vbe4MFcWI2OdRjxoJgyDdIv76jgY/edit#gid=1455281654>
provided invaluable testing and feedback during the beta phase of the
project and will play an essential role in the maintenance of the website
going forward. And last but not least, Emily Malina scoured photo archives
for the beautiful images you see on the main pages.

Secretary Madeleine Albright, the chairman of NDI’s board of directors,
famously said that democracy is not an event, it’s a process. Just like
democracy, the website redesign is work in progress. We hope you will help
us continue to improve our website by submitting bug reports or feature
requests through this form
<https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form?EQBCT=9a151baa0df4492a976fbb147f009ace>.

Warm regards,

Jesper Frant

Jesper Frant
Digital Communications Manager
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5505 <(202)%20728-5505> (w)
303-808-5716 <(303)%20808-5716> (m)
www.ndi.org | www.demworks.org

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