Designing the Center for Effective Public Policy's website to encourage and support the progress of the criminal justice systems, and showcase CEPP's track record after 40 years in criminal justice reform.
The Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP) works closely with justice system practitioners to transform the criminal justice system through innovative, evidence-based policies and practices. Their work spans across a broad range of criminal justice issues, including: probation and pretrial justice, addressing the unique needs of women in the criminal justice system, and advocating for local criminal justice systems to use research to inform decisions. We originally started working with CEPP when the organization partnered with Arnold Ventures and others to launch the Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) initiative, a 5-year initiative focused on pretrial justice — that seeks to achieve fair, just, effective pretrial practices, every day, nationwide.
After our original collaboration, CEPP asked us to redesign their own website. We were more than excited to continue to work with such a strong leader in the criminal justice reform space.
CEPP’s website was outdated and no longer reflected who they were as an organization. It didn’t properly convey the true impact of the difficult and meaningful work that the CEPP team was doing every day. For non-profit organizations, websites serve as the first opportunity to inspire people and other organizations to collaborate. We saw an opportunity to design a modern that answered the question, “Who is CEPP?”. We wanted the CEPP website to tell a strong story: showcase the organization’s unique process to encourage and support the progress of the criminal justice systems, and their reputation and impressive track record after 40 years in this field.
Exygy’s team did a complete brand and website redesign. We had an end-to-end process which included: brand refresh, lean user research, UX/UI Design, visual design, product build, training the CEPP team, and launching the site.
One example of how user research can powerfully influence the designs in product development is the testimonials feature on the new website. During our user research, we heard folks speak with a great amount of trust, respect, and gratitude for the work that the CEPP team does. We were blown away by how passionately people spoke about CEPP, but realized that this wasn’t reflected on their current website. The testimonials feature was born: It conveyed to visitors exactly how unique & respected CEPP is in the field, directly from their clients and partners.
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Another new feature we added is the “Resource section.” Over 40 years, CEPP has developed a large library of guides and resources on topics such as pretrial justice, parole and probation and evidence-based decision making — some of it is one-of-a-kind across the nation. The Resources section makes it easier for visitors to access this critical information but gives them the ability to filter through topics.
As an outcome of our collaboration, the CEPP team has a brand and a website that truly reflects their organization’s spirit and work. When visitors now visit cepp.com, they can easily and quickly understand who they are as an organization and what work they do. They can browse through case studies of previous projects, and find the resources they are looking for.
As CEPP celebrates its 40th anniversary this December, the new website empowers them to proudly share their story with the world.
Our experience working with Exygy on our website redesign was phenomenal. They invested time in understanding who we are as an organization, our work, and how we could better tell our story. They partnered with us to redesign an information-heavy, dated website and create a site that is fresh, engaging, and simple to navigate. Our new website truly conveys who we are and our aspiration to advance sustainable justice system improvements. The transformation was beyond our expectations.”
— LEILAH GILLIGAN, CEPP DIRECTOR
