In 2001, Lew Hough and a group traveled to Guatemala on the first Living Water Trip. Since then, thousands have gone on trips trips and an entire department at Living Water is now devoted to sending donors on trips. Trip participants or trippers, are able to visit countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Rwanda or Haiti. Since the first trip, Living Water has referred to the trips as a ‘Short-term’ Trip or STT. Living Water decided it was time for a rebrand as this name was not recognized by individuals who had not gone on a Living Water Trip. The Marketing Team along with the Trips Team decided to follow their lead and change the name to Living Water Trips. It became an opportunity to re-engage Trip alumni, as well as pull in new Trippers.
THE MAIN STAKEHOLDERS
Trip Coordinators
The trip coordinators are the main point of contact for trippers. They field questions, soothe concerns, schedule the trip dates, manage flights and so much more. The preferred method of contact varies between phone and email. Trip coordinators sometimes accompany teams on trips, becoming a part of the in-country staff family along the way.
Our Trippers
The majority of trippers are in their 40s. They have more established careers that allow them flexibility to take a week off of work for a trip. There are also groups that consist of young professionals from companies, youth groups and other church groups. They are generally busy, unwilling to read and need a straight-forward, easy experience when learning about our trips.
THE IDENTITY
With a new name, there was a need for a new logo. I found inspiration in boy scout patches and simplified illustration styles. I felt it embodied the adventurous spirit of trippers and reflected that trippers would learn new skills like drilling, teaching hygiene and sanitation while on the trip. The hands in the center represent working together as a trip team, working together with the in-country staff, and most importantly working alongside the community in completing the well. They also emphasize equality between trippers and the community members. The wrench is a symbol for the physical work of drilling and the cross is for sharing the love of Jesus with the community by the trippers and staff members while they are there—because Christ called us to love our neighbors and help those in need or distress.
THE TOOLBOX
I then created "patches" for each country trippers can travel to, allowing them to earn a patch for each country visited. In addition to patches for each country, additional patches were created for the work done while on the trip. Trippers can earn patches for teaching Sanitation & Hygiene, participating in Pump Repair, or Drilling. I created them as a tool for the trip coordinators to encourage trippers to visit new countries and participate in different activities on each trip. This would also help the trippers push themselves outside of their comfort zone and learn something different about themselves and the people in the communities they serve.
THE GEAR
Along with the rebrand, came new t-shirts! It's a simple design featuring the badge, Living Water's mission, and the Living Water International logo. In conjunction with the launch of the rebrand, a new campaign was launched to encourage trippers to continue their journey with the Living Water family as monthly givers, allowing them to continue the impact they started on their trip. As an incentive, we created a limited-edition, Trip Alumni T-shirt, that was given to everyone who signed up to be a monthly giver.
THE WEBSITE
The rebrand was an opportunity to address pain points and improve the online experience for trippers. I joined forces with Jordan, one of our Trip Coordinators and Hope, Director of Trips, they helped me understand the users and the major pain points. They helped me to understand what features on the website they needed and what would make their jobs harder. Trippers have a variety of concerns or fears, especially if it's their first time, so showing the full trip experience visually and through copy would be a major milestone.
Goals
Pain Points
Before and after talking to Hope and Jordan I identified potential goals:
Add an interactive calendar to view open trip dates and share with friends. (After talking to Hope and Jordan about it, we decided this is a future goal because of the cost to create something as custom as they need)
Add information and visuals to ease fears or anxieties new trip participants may have and decrease emails sent by trip coordinators
Add a direct way to contact Living Water Trips
While interviewing Jordan and Hope, they identified areas that could improve their own workflow and attract new trippers.
Potential trip participants and current trip participants can't find information they need on the current website
New trip participants have fears and concerns because of their lack of knowledge about trips
Trip coordinators spend large amounts of time answering questions that the website does not contain
Information on the current site is out of date and hard to keep updated
No contact information for Living Water Trips
the yellow bar at bottom represents sticky navigation to follow at bottom of page as you scroll
THE TOOLBOX
An important piece of the experience for the tripper is the trip book. The book is mailed in a package along with the Trips t-shirt from Living Water HQ in Houston to the trip participant a few weeks prior to their departure date. The tripper uses it as a guide to packing, the in-country experience and preparing both mentally and spiritually.
The original book was a bulky, small 3-ring binder that needed to be individually stuffed with versioned sections based on country and trip coordinator. I used this as an opportunity to consult the trip coordinators and do a complete overhaul of content to make this the most useful piece to the trippers. We changed the organization of the sections and removed a large amount of unimportant information. It also now includes information that previously was distributed on one-sheeters or via email so that the tripper can find all the info they need in one place.
For the update, I used a hidden wiro as the vessel and created an individual book for each country. The hidden wiro creates a significantly smaller book that’s much easier to travel with and make it into the participants carry-on. It decreases Trip Coordinator time spent stuffing packages for the hundreds of trippers. I also removed the Trip Coordinator specific section in favor of a one-color sticker that can be printed in office as needed to decrease wasted pages when staff information changes.
