Dear friends: It is with great pleasure that we are launching an updated visual identity and redesigned website for HURIDOCS.
Our hope is to more effectively connect with all of you. If you are an activist, advocate, researcher or policymaker, we want to make it easy to find resources for documenting, managing and making the most of human rights information. If you are a peer organisation, we want to make it easy to get new ideas on how we can collaborate or lean on each other. If you are a funder, we want to make sure you can see how your support makes a difference to better promote and protect human rights worldwide.
And for anyone who stumbles upon HURIDOCS, we want to clearly convey who we are: allies who are committed to learning and whose reason for being is to help the human rights movement to gather, organise and use information to create positive change in the world.
Warm, open and forward-looking
One of the first things you may notice is we’ve updated the HURIDOCS logo. In the logo, our name is now spelled in lowercase letters to signify our approachability. And the puzzle piece icon has received a modernised twist, but its deeper significance remains the same: the gathering and sense-making of information is often the missing piece that connects human rights work to greater impact.
We also gave our colour palette a refresh to bring it more in line with who we strive to be as an organisation. Our primary colour is still red, reflecting the humanity at the heart of everything we do, but it’s now a softer, more inviting shade. Its main complement is a teal that stands for hope, a sense of possibility.
Similarly, our dedication to open source is embodied in the typefaces we use: Poppins (designed by the Indian Type Foundry and Jonny Pinhorn) and Open Sans (created by Steve Matteson). These open-source fonts focus on being legible, are free to use and provide a simple, yet friendly experience.
Continuity and clean-up
For the redesign of our website, we decided to stick with WordPress, as an easy-to-maintain and adaptable solution. We have, however, rebuilt it from the ground up, reworking existing sections and adding many new ones that explain who HURIDOCS is and why information documentation and management matters for human rights work.
All of this has been done based on feedback that we received from human rights defenders and supporters who graciously participated in our research on what was working well and what could be improved on our website.
For an NGO that helps others organise their information, this experience has been humbling. Our previous site accompanied HURIDOCS through more than 10 years of evolution, and subsequently was home to many, many pages that had to be properly categorised and, if appropriate, filed away. If there is historical information that you cannot find, please check out the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine or contact us.
In a sense, this redesign process typifies one of our guiding principles: we stick to commitments, evolve our approach according to context and lessons learned, let go of what no longer serves – and make space for what is and needs to come.
Un grand merci
We want to thank VMLY&R in Paris, who has helped us on a pro bono basis in developing our new logo and font choices. Cécile, Chan, Dmitri, Marie and everyone there – un grand merci!
We also want to thank Magdalena Faizov, who has been an incredible shepherd to design and develop the website in a thoughtful, thorough and accessible manner.
Praiz UX has our gratitude for being a perceptive user researcher, capturing and crystallising findings to provide us with a North Star and nuggets of wisdom.
Finally, I want to thank the more than 30 partners, peers and friends who have contributed their insights during the initial research and later when we tested the website prototype.
Living, breathing, evolving
HURIDOCS was founded in 1982, and this certainly isn’t the first time that the organisation has updated its appearance. As the world changes, we change with it, and we will continue to iterate and improve this website, the way we communicate, and the tools and support that we offer the human rights movement.
If you have ideas or comments, we’d love to hear what you think! Get in touch with us through our website and HURIDOCS social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), or feel free to reach out to me over email (friedhelm@huridocs.org).