Dear Mandy and team,
Hope all is well! Thanks for your patience, we wanted to share the homepage with one of our web design partners for their feedback as well, which took a little extra time. Their feedback is incorporated into the below notes. Overall, as stated previously, we think there’s been a great deal of improvement on the website thus far!
Regarding fonts, we don’t have any major issues with the fonts used, but we did want to re-share our previous recommendations in case they may make it even more cohesive:
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It’s important to choose a font family with multiple styles—Regular, Medium, Bold, and Condensed—to maintain flexibility and readability across different displays and browsers.
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Roboto is a solid and versatile choice, especially when used in multiple styles. If more character is desired, other good options include Inter (variable font) and Poppins.
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Raleway falls somewhere in between—it’s a safe option but adds a bit more personality compared to more utilitarian choices.
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Some widely used, safe, and utilitarian fonts include Montserrat (for headlines), Roboto, and Lexend. These work well but won’t add much personality if that’s a priority.
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If a combination of serif and sans-serif fonts is preferred for headlines, subheadings, and body text, here are some options to consider:
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Serif: Noticia, Lora, Garamond
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Sans-serif: Public Sans, Manrope, Lexend
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We’ve also included some further thoughts here:
Top of Page (Nav Bar, Lead Image, Our Mission):
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We like the “Who We Are”, “What We Do”, “Why It Matters” headers for the top nav bar.
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That said, it is not intuitive that the “Why It Matters” section would include “News” and “Research”. These could perhaps go into a fourth section called something like “News & Insights” and the subheadings could be “News”, “ Research”, “Live Events”, “Newsletters”.
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(Include "Watch Video" or "Learn About Our Mission" next to the play button — something to make it a bit more compelling and clear to entice people to click
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The “China-United States Exchange Foundation”portion of the logo in the top left is really small and hard to read, and it wouldn't likely pass WCAG accessibility guidelines. Could that portion be made bigger?
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The arrows under the navigation items at the top (who we are, what we do, why it matters) could be centered
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The fuzzy edge surrounding the top of the homepage navigation bar might benefit being a bit lower beneath the navigation. And, will the navigation be "sticky"? If so, the text could conflict with other text as the page scrolls.
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How easy is it to replace the main graphic, headline, and link? Is it envisioned that this would change over time, or would just be one permanent image? It might be nice to be able to change it based on updated events.
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On that note, we are not sure the current image of the Chinese ambassador speaking to the audience at the Forum (who look like mostly HK attendees) fully encapsulates the international people-to-people nature of CUSEF’s work, so we may suggest replacing it with an image that is a little more balanced and reflective of the mission (and with less of a Chinese govt focus).
What We Do:
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Mouseover effects on the “What We Do” section would be great to add on the photos if they aren’t there already
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If possible, it would be great if all the pillars of work were visible without having to scroll left and right, as many people may not do that.
Our News:
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Perhaps have a more descriptive link under the “Our News” section — maybe “see more news” rather than “explore more”
Upcoming:
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We’re unclear on what this section is supposed to be. It has a button for "register,” but as there might not be many events that the public need to register for, we wonder if this is needed at all?
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If you’d like to keep it, we could perhaps change it to upcoming “events” or “activities,” and add in those labels?
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If this section stays, maybe we could include a “see more events” link under the section
CUSEF Live:
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We recommend replacing “CUSEF Live” with a “CUSEF Digital” section that showcases recent content from Focus and CC. This could also include featuring some CUSEF Live recordings, but allows the section to be broader.
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To make it more clear what this section is, a short description could be added under the header, such as “CUSEF produces engaging digital content featuring experts and everyday people across multiple platforms, including China-US Focus, The China Current, and recordings of our live events".
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If you wish to keep “CUSEF Live” we would still suggest adding a short line to describe what this refers to (ie, "CUSEF hosts live events with real-time insights into the bilateral relationship from the people shaping it,” as it is not clear just by the name what this means. It may be worth also still having a separate section for “CUSEF Digital” on the homepage to highlight some of the other platforms.
Our Impact:
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We think “Our Impact” should be moved up higher on the page, as it can be quite powerful to show the impact of CUSEF’s work. We think it should be at least above “CUSEF Live” (or Digital, if changed) and could also go above “Our News.”
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That said, we don’t recommend beginning with a quote from the former Chinese ambassador, and would instead focus on some of the key impact statistics + numbers. We also recommend minimizing current + former Chinese government quotes and trying to highlight US supportersfirst, as this would be more appealing to US audiences and would help mitigate further misunderstandings about CUSEF’s connection to the Chinese government.
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This section has a lot going on visually and could be simplified. We’re not sure the quote or red rectangle are needed. The arrows on the outsides of the unit are also not consistent with similar "carousels" above.
Our Community:
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We’re unsure about the purpose and utility of the “Our Community” section. If the subpages are meant to link to individual partners, it may not be necessary, especially given the current format only allows 3-4 partners to be visible at once, which feels quite limited. There is also a lot on the page already, so perhaps this could be cut. If it is kept, we suggest one line describing what is meant by “Our Community”.
General:
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Overall, the “play” and “arrows” to click to different photos, etc. are very similar and could cause misclicks.
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One liners describing what each section is would be helpful for website visitors who aren’t familiar with CUSEF
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We recommend featuring the newsletter sign-up more prominently, potentially at the top of the homepage or in a dropdown menu, rather than limiting it to a small button at the bottom of the page.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We’re happy to discuss further on our upcoming call.