National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is the leading member organization dedicated to reforming the criminal justice system. Their goals are to ensure justice and due process, redress systemic racism and ensure all members have the resources they need to serve.

NACDL’s dated web design and branding were mismatched to their mission and was negatively impacting their member experience. The end of life (EOL) of their Ektron CMS was creating a bottleneck for content creation, costing countless additional hours of work. Additionally, NACDL’s site navigation was preventing their members from finding the NACDL resources they rely on.

AgencyQ led a robust discovery phase to develop the comprehensive digital strategy needed, including persona development, a heuristic evaluation of the site, and the creation of journey maps to uncover user pain points. The results of this discovery work enabled AgencyQ to clarify and align NACDL’s brand with their personas and redesign the site’s user experience (UX).

The new layout is persona-focused and built to improve navigation and engagement by intuitively delivering relevant content and resources. AgencyQ performed search engine optimization (SEO) and content audits to analyze the existing resources, perform gap analysis, update content strategy, and address searchability issues.

AgencyQ evaluated content management system (CMS) platforms and selected Kentico to streamline internal efforts. A user-focused visual design was created, giving their audiences more intuitive pathways to access valuable NACDL content. Additionally, AgencyQ expanded NACDL’s brand guidelines to create an identity reflecting the passionate culture of the association and its members.

NACDL launched the new site with highly positive feedback from the board and users on the new design. Enhanced content and site layout improved accessibility to NACDL’s resources, member engagement, and retention rates. The new CMS (Kentico) will save NACDL staff dozens of staff hours per week and result in more timely, accurate information for members.