Brand refresh and website redesign help grow membership, awareness for the Bicycle Coalition


Read on about how we helped a 48-year-old coalition grow membership and improve the health, wellness, and communities in Greater Philadelphia.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia promotes safe cycling in the greater Philadelphia area. Their goal is to use key partnerships to provide education programs, teaching street safety, promoting healthy habits, and encouraging leadership. They’d also like to organize bicyclists in eight suburban counties around Philadelphia to advocate for safe on-road networks as well as connected trails and bicycle facilities. 

The problem

The Bicycle Coalition wanted a new website and updated brand identity. The website architecture needed to support a hefty amount of information. Each of the website’s menus needed several sub-categories, and each of the pages was heavy with text. The text needed to be broken down into a seamless, easy-to-read-and-understand design, so that important text could be prioritized for users. The website’s primary goal was to increase awareness and drive membership.

The solutions

Key Medium created a new brand identity and refined what the Coalition stands for to strengthen brand awareness. The new design and branding maximized impact through program-driven information architecture.

We conducted market research, stakeholder surveys, and design thinking workshops to refine the site’s offerings and prioritize information. The workshops found out what information users most wanted to find quickly, which is why the bike maps are on the home page as well as links to the latest blog posts, which share updates and local bike-related news. 

Via fine-tuning the entire website’s text, we strengthened the messaging and created a design tailored towards their action-oriented goals. The organization wanted to be presented as fun and animated and we delivered. The website depicts colorful images of bike rides in the area and users find the interactive bike map helpful, especially as the entire site’s design is adapted for mobile use, meaning on-the-go users can easily access the site’s vital information when out on long rides.

The new site structure highlights key victories and showcases a simple pathway to getting involved. We have easier to find menus for the action center, how to showcase corporate sponsors, how to maximize corporate value, and encourage membership. 

The homepage’s above the fold messaging shows members they can get involved, join, and donate (as prominent CTAs), and demonstrates the benefits of membership: member-only rides, exclusive discounts, and free resources. Each menu has subcategories for users to find out more. As users scroll, they can find access to bike maps, the website’s blog, resources, news, and sponsors.

Whilst working behind the scenes, we wanted to keep the existing site operational. We corrected several technical issues and developed a new Google Ad campaign to achieve Google Ad Grant compliance through a pro bono ad campaign to help the Coalition reach its goals. We also enabled enhanced eCommerce analytics and developed an interactive dashboard that gave near real-time insight into the ongoing success of their membership efforts.

Bicycle Coalition
See the new BicycleCoalition.org!

A refreshed brand identity and animation:

Bicycle coalition logo animated

A new brand design element to spread the love:

The results

We achieved the following results in the first twelve weeks (Year-over-Year to account for seasonality):

  • Increased page views
  • Increased sessions
  • Increased unique users by over 11% from November 2019 to May 2020
  • Reduced bounce rate by 5%
  • Increased membership growth rate
  • Increased donations

In addition to the above results, we’ve also been awarded top honors, and second-highest honors in two international competitions for a total of four awards so far (see our Client’s post about this here):

  • 2019 VEGA DIGITAL AWARDS, CANOPUS (highest honors), WEBSITES- USER EXPERIENCE
  • 2019 VEGA DIGITAL AWARDS, CENTAURI (2nd highest honors), WEBSITES- VISUAL APPEAL
  • 2020 AVA DIGITAL AWARDS, PLATINUM, CREATIVITY (WEB DESIGN) – WEBSITE REDESIGN
  • 2020 MUSE CREATIVE AWARDS, GOLD, WEBSITES- NONPROFIT
  • 2020 DOTCOMM AWARDS, GOLD, WEBSITES- NONPROFIT

Does your site structure and branding need an overhaul? Get in touch today.

What Ashley has to say about our work together: