Once you’ve begun to understand your audiences needs, the next step is to start communicating trust effectively. Trust is the bedrock of any mission-driven organization, and effective communication is key to building and maintaining that trust. So how can the products we design help convey reliability, transparency, and integrity to the folks who will use them in the end?

Instilling deep trust: A lesson from climbing

When I first started indoor rock climbing, I was extremely skeptical of anyone that was belaying, or supporting me, as I climbed up a 60 ft wall. These people are holding your very lives in their hands—you have to be able to trust them with it. You typically think of rock climbing as more of a solo sport, but it’s really based on the trust in a partnership and the support of a wider community of climbers. 

While I’m still very much an amateur, even I am keenly aware of how important it is to have your gear set up correctly before any action happens. Once you’ve established trust with your partner through this safe foundation, your communications to your climbing partner then have to be clear, short, (and sometimes loud) to make sure you’re accurately conveying the message. You establish credibility when you then, in turn, listen carefully to make sure that they’ve understood and are ready to get started. 

In design, the biggest mistake I’ve seen teams make is to only allow the product to communicate in one direction. How can you truly know that something resonates with your audiences if they can’t tell you anything about it? And are you paying attention to all the right cues?

Techniques that Create Credibility

Clarity, authenticity, and inclusivity are essential for communicating trust effectively. Here are some techniques that we like to use:

Feedback Loops

Designing feedback mechanisms encourages open communication with audiences. When climbing, you have to both give and get verbal confirmation to start climbing. Actively listening to feedback about your designs and responding transparently demonstrates that willingness to engage and improve, which strengthens trust over time.

Contact forms and comment sections are great ways of designing features that will get you key info to improve your designs over time. And your users will appreciate that you’ve done it.

Clear and Consistent Branding

Consistency in your design elements such as logos, color schemes, and typography creates a cohesive brand identity. On a rock climbing wall, you can expect consistent patterns in the color theme or type of hold you’re using to go up a certain path. Similarly, in design, a consistent visual identity across all of your communication channels then instills confidence and reliability in your organization.

If you’re about to or have just undergone a brand refresh or rebranding, now is the time to think about establishing a design system! These are like the digital extension of your typical print-focused brand guidelines. A design system should be scalable based on your needs as an organization to support consistent branding across your channels.

Transparent Information Architecture

Much like climbers need to clearly mark their routes to understand how to ascend a wall, thoughtful design of information architecture can ensure that the content you add to your experience is organized in a logical and easily navigable manner. Clear navigation paths and intuitive user interfaces make it easy for audiences to find information, which promotes transparency and trust.

For example, Forum One recently worked with partners on an update to the website for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The site was outdated in appearance and did not effectively portray the agency’s mission and resources, After reviewing their content, we noticed that there was also a lot of outdated and underused content across the site, as well as valuable material in unexpected locations. Together, we worked to organize key content into major topical areas, each of which aggregates tools, resources, and other content types on that area. The redesign also created a resources and tools library for quick access to the most important material to address security issues.

Honest Visual Communication

Just like a route map for a climber, visual elements such as imagery, icons, and infographics can be used to communicate complex ideas and information in a clear and honest manner. Avoiding misleading or manipulative visuals reinforces the organization’s integrity.

For example, we recently partnered with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank Studios to support the launch of their new “Wild Hope” video production, which highlights the heroes and successes, small and large, of biodiversity preservation.

Throughout the mobile-responsive WordPress site, we’ve peppered in imagery and icons that reinforce the mission of the brand itself. We worked closely with our clients to ensure that the images utilized across the site supported the mission of the series.

Authentic Storytelling

Design can be a great tool to tell authentic stories that resonate with your audiences on an emotional level. By incorporating real-life examples, stories, testimonials, and even user-generated content, you can humanize the organization and then build trust through those genuine connections. Climbers love a good recounting of their awesome ascents! And if you’ve seen any of the Netflix documentaries about outdoor climbing, you’ll notice how intriguing a topic like this can be to even a newcomer. Use that real-life hook in your designs.

Data Visualization

Charts, graphs, and interactive dashboards are an accessible way to present data and statistics visually, which in turn, enhances transparency and credibility in your organization. Clear and visually engaging data visualization allows audiences to understand complex information more easily which fosters trust in your organization’s expertise.

The team at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health came to us a few years ago with an idea: to provide a broad set of health metrics for the largest US cities to policymakers and community leaders to help solve intractable health issues.

We launched City Health Dashboard in 2018 and have been developing and expanding on the concept since then. 

The core of the site is the ability to see relative performance on the metric against both national averages, other cities, and between neighborhoods in cities. Scale charts and maps provide that visual representation that helps audiences engage and establish credibility.

The NYU team has used these visual tools to support educational presentations and consulting projects, engaging larger numbers of constituents in this complex data than might be difficult otherwise.

Next: After working to understand user needs and communicate trust, the next part in our series explores strategies for maintaining engagement through design, to foster a sense of community and loyalty among your audience.

The Vega Awards acknowledge those who create and continually expand the digital universe. Organized by the International Awards Association (IAA), the awards recognize and honor the outstanding performance, talent, and effort of the best digital and creative professionals worldwide.

Forum One’s 11 awards included two platinum, five gold, and four silver awards across focus areas, including cultural institutions, health and wellness, environmental awareness, and government. These awards honored Forum One’s work in building websites, digital tools, and virtual experiences for our clients.

Oregon Zoo

Platinum – Website & Mobile Sites – Cultural

Based in Portland, the Oregon Zoo is a prominent regional institution that receives around 1.5 million annual visits and helps protect more than 20 endangered and threatened species.

Forum One worked with the Oregon Zoo to redesign its website as part of its strategic efforts to deliver an inspiring guest experience and better convey its offerings and impact.

The end result is accessible, multilingual, and mobile-first digital experience. Design choices also include delightful interactive features, such as load animations and hover effects, and striking photography to highlight the Zoo’s impact.

Wild Hope

Platinum – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

Wild Hope is a video production that highlights the heroes and successes, small and large, of biodiversity preservation. Forum One collaborated with Tangled Bank Studios to develop a stunning, mobile-responsive, user-friendly website that showcases the documentary series and enhances user interaction and exploration.

The site’s design emphasizes three primary avenues for discovering content: watching the series, exploring additional materials like interviews and lesson plans, and engaging in real-world activities, such as building a native plant garden. 

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Cultural

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH) – housing such iconic artifacts as the original Star-Spangled Banner, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” – welcomes approximately 2 million in-person visitors annually. Forum One partnered with the Museum on a full website redesign and upgrade, to welcome more diverse audiences and provide a space to discover our shared American history through a modern, inclusive, and forward-looking digital experience.

Natural Resources Defense Council

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been working since 1970 to safeguard the earth. NRDC combines the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of more than 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.

Forum One worked with NRDC this year to redesign their website. The redesigned website continues to help NRDC deliver on its mission to safeguard the earth for years to come. This work has empowered NRDC’s content managers, further engaged audiences in the mission, and amplified the organization’s impact. 

HHMI BioInteractive Community Platform

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Environmental Awareness

Forum One worked with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) BioInteractive team to create a user-friendly and engaging collection of educational resources, interactive applications, lesson plans, workshops, videos, news articles, and more to help 40,000 science educators around the world connect students with inspiring ideas in biology and increase engagement with the sciences. 

The new website allows educators to search and explore multimedia resources across topics and formats and assemble them into customized and shareable collections and lesson plans. 

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, uses data to show how where we live matters to our health. 

For the past 11 annual rankings, Forum One has developed responsive, increasingly sophisticated data visualizations and maps that let users explore and compare detailed public health information across more than 65 health factors and outcomes for more than 3,000 counties. Our decade plus relationship is a great example of the impact that can be made when great teams collaborate!

AARP Livability Index

Gold – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. Within the organization, the AARP Public Policy Institute maintains the AARP Livability Index, a key tool in their mission to promote the development of sound, creative policies to address common needs for economic security, health care, and quality of life.

Forum One helped the AARP Livability Index meet the needs of its audiences with an easier-to-use website and accessible data that informs consumer and policy decisions nationwide.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Search Tool

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Government

With over 100 federal agencies subject to FOIA requests and hundreds of FOIA offices whose records are not connected, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)  teamed up with Forum One and our partner, Polydelta, to produce an innovative new search tool that prioritizes an enhanced customer experience in order to increase government transparency.

The FOIA Search Tool applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to make it simpler for citizens to navigate the complex FOIA system via a friendly, more conversational interface. Launched in 2023, the DOJ called this search wizard “one of the most significant improvements” to FOIA.gov since 2018.

Congressional District Health Dashboard

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Health / Fitness / Wellness

The new Congressional Health Dashboard provides policymakers and policy advocates with health data to inform policy decisions affecting health outcomes. It provides data for all U.S. congressional districts, expanding the geographic coverage of its sister site, the City Health Dashboard.

Forum One built the site with the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health. 

The site presents data for more than 35 health-related metrics for all U.S. Congressional Districts. Site visitors can browse the data at the national and district level via Metric Maps or review all metric values for individual districts via Congressional District Snapshots.

USAID Digital Development

Silver – Website & Mobile Sites – Government

Forum One worked with USAID’s Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub to create the brand-new digitaldevelopment.org, a one-stop-shop for resources on digital country ecosystems for USAID missions and partners, researchers, and development practitioners.

International development practitioners require access to up-to-date data, evidence, and resources to understand the dynamic digital ecosystems of the countries where they work. With no centralized place to find this information, these practitioners had been spending more time than necessary trying to find information on their country’s digital ecosystem. 

NMAAHC Simmons Talks

Silver – Virtual / Remote Experience – Arts & Culture

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Simmons Talks series connects audiences with individuals of singular vision, intellect, courage, compassion, and historical and contemporary significance and creates an opportunity for the Museum to connect with its audiences outside of the structure of a visit to the museum. Endowed by Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, the talks named in her honor feature discussions with African American innovators in art, business, science, literature, medicine, social justice, technology, and more.

Forum One partnered with the Museum to develop a visual brand system for the event in addition to visual assets that were used across the Museum’s digital channels and in person at the event. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We’d like to thank our Forum One team members and client partners who work daily to create impact. Each of these projects serves a critical purpose, whether it’s fighting to protect our environment, ensure transparency in our government, solve complex community health problems, and more.

We’d also like to thank our friends at the Vega Awards for the great honor and platform to celebrate so many impactful projects!

Understanding audience needs is the core of good design. For mission-driven organizations in particular, forging deep connections with audiences is paramount. The questions we hear often are about how organizations can identify and adapt designs to meet the evolving needs of their audiences and ensure that the mission resonates deeply. 

While understanding audience needs is the basis of all good strategy and user experience processes, end users often get lost or deprioritized in the design phase. I want to share a few of my favorite techniques for making sure that you’re identifying and adapting to the evolving needs of your audience while designing.

Build internal trust first: A soccer lesson

I wasn’t an amazing soccer player, but I did enjoy playing on soccer teams throughout my childhood. I was always a midfielder, charged with passing the ball to my teammates and knowing where they were at any moment. 

Making sure I got the ball to the right person at the right moment allowed my teammates to trust in me, and the fact that we were able to score goals over and over again built credibility in our collective skills. “Passing the design ball” on projects similarly builds skills amongst team members. And that strategic teamwork translates to efficiency on the other end, building products that audiences want to engage with because they’ve been thoroughly tested and designed.

But how do you build trust like a team? I think that the most powerful design technique is to engage in active listening and empathy-building exercises with your internal stakeholders. By continuing to understand the challenges, desires, and aspirations of your audiences, you can tailor your designs to resonate on a deeper level. Here are some ways to practice that effort:

Active Listening Sessions

I encourage structured listening sessions where team members take turns sharing their thoughts and concerns, while others actively listen without interruption. This fosters a culture of open communication and empathy within the team. Just like a good soccer coach does for their team.

While I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art working on a website redesign, we recognized the need to be transparent with our internal audiences and started hosting a series of monthly open forum presentations called “Website Wednesdays.” All museum employees were welcome to join and ask questions, many of which led to important design conversations later on.

Collaborative Brainstorming

Encourage team members to participate in collaborative brainstorming sessions where everyone has an opportunity to contribute ideas and solutions. Create a safe space where all voices are valued and respected. And practice, practice, practice!

Brainstorming together is another great way to get your teams working towards the same goals. For example, a quick “Crazy 8s” exercise only takes a few minutes and allows everyone a safe and open space to ideate. Crazy 8s is a fast-sketching exercise that challenges people to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. You’ll generate more great ideas than you’re able to squeeze into one product.

Role-playing Exercises

Engaging in role-playing exercises allows your team members to take on the perspective of different user personas. This can help them gain insight into the challenges and experiences faced by their audience. And just like soccer, you have to run these drills more than once to be successful!

Personas can be tough to define and get a hold of but with the help of trained consultants, you can leverage them into valuable design tools. 

Building Trust with End Users

Shifting to the other side of the game, getting the trust of your end users is the way to ensure that the designs that you and your teams pour your time and energy into are engaging and continue to be used by audiences past that initial look. Here are methods for approaching user engagement that build and rely on trust:

Surveys and Feedback Forms

Listen to the crowd! Create surveys and feedback forms to gather insights from your external audience. Ask questions about their needs, preferences, pain points, and desired outcomes related to your product or service. These can be simple and quick frameworks—no need to over-engineer them.

For example, if you’re a nonprofit looking to stand up a new initiative for a specific audience, launch a quick, five-question survey on a related section of your website as you’re in the planning phase. Timing these types of feedback with new initiatives can help point your design in the right direction before it’s off the ground, which can save you lots of valuable time and money.

User Testing Sessions

Conducting user testing sessions, where participants interact with your product or prototype, will provide that real-time feedback that is invaluable to informing designs as they’re in progress. This is like that friendly game or scrimmage with another team. You’re going to be able to observe their actions and listen to their verbal feedback to uncover where there’s issues and areas for improvement. Getting this type of feedback from your end users is key to making sure that these experiences really resonate with them. 

For example, a couple years ago, Forum One worked with a prominent think tank that was creating a brand new product using brand new technology. They had nothing more than a general idea for the interface, and only a number of loose assumptions. We used a simple, paper-based sketch to help crystalize their idea into a design, and then built an HTML prototype. We tested that prototype, iterated on it, and tested it again. This prototype and the successful tests helped the organization obtain grant funding to build out the working product.

Focus Groups

Don’t forget to talk to your fans directly! Organize focus groups made of members of your target audience. By facilitating discussions around specific topics or features, you’re allowing participants to share their opinions, experiences, and suggestions to improve and guide those designs.

If you’re a government agency trying to guide the design of a complex feature on your site, just talking with folks may not be enough to get the specific notes you need. Try using creative stimuli like prototypes to provide the context that will get you that invaluable feedback. Paper prototypes and sketches are cost-effective and an easy way to make sure that your focus group understands what you’re trying to design. They can even be done virtually!

Audience Interviews

Pick a few core supporters and schedule interviews with them to delve deeper into their experiences and perceptions. This type of qualitative feedback is user gold! Use a mix of open-ended and probing questions to uncover valuable insights and anecdotes.

Interviews like these can be more time-consuming but being able to dig deeper into a user’s response, asking them relevant questions, is much easier than attempting to parse a moderated response without having access to that interviewee.

The good thing is that if you’re an organization with a limited budget or shortened timeline, you don’t have to conduct a ton of interviews to start to see patterns in the feedback. Even five 30-minute sessions can start to get you the leads you’re looking for. 

Social Media Listening

Lastly, check the socials. Monitor social media channels for mentions and chatter about your brand or industry. Pay close attention to what people are saying and look for common themes or pain points. You can then use this information to inform your design decisions, balanced with the other feedback, of course.

Next: Now that you’ve got good ideas about building trust with internal and external stakeholders, the second part of this series will delve into how to use design tools to convey reliability, transparency, and integrity.

The conversation with the Davey Awards team highlights Corey’s insights into the principles that guide Forum One’s creative process, with a major emphasis on ideation, innovation, and collaboration.

“Our ideation process involves close collaboration,” Corey noted. “We regularly review past work to identify opportunities to improve and innovate. By staying informed on the latest in design and technology, we bring fresh ideas to every project.” This commitment to continuous learning and improvement allows Forum One to evolve its capabilities, expanding from web design to interactive and motion design, and enriching our branding and illustration expertise.

Explore the feature in full: Davey Awards Visionaries: Forum One

Learn more about Corey’s creative process

Dive further into Corey’s creative process by watching his most recent webinar on The Creative Process Behind Designing for Impact. Corey talks us through how he approaches all projects with passion, purpose, and curiosity, and shares award-winning examples from his most recent with the Smithsonian.

After all the work to ensure your new website is accessible and in compliance with Section 508 and WCAG standards, you shift into day-to-day operations, and… things change. Standards shift, old habits take over, and new staff may not understand how to maintain accessibility. 

It takes intention and planning to maintain a website’s level of accessibility as you make content and development updates over time. But with the right effort, you can ensure your accessible site grows even better for your audiences. 

Anticipate barriers to accessibility 

Why is it so difficult to maintain accessibility standards? There are a few common reasons:

• Web managers and content creators fall into old habits. People on your team might be used to putting text over images because for them, it’s an efficient way to highlight information. Even if you’ve explained that this, or any other habit that falls out of compliance, it can be hard for users to change. 

• The new design system has gaps. Your redesign likely standardized new colors, heading and feature styles, and everything else you thought you’d need for content. But, a new feature crops up, and all of a sudden content creators are straying, introducing new colors and styles that haven’t been reviewed and don’t meet standards. 

• Staying static because of “clearance” Conversely, sometimes text or features stay in place too long, with staff feeling that “we can’t change because it’s already gone through clearance.” But this can lead to outdated or unaligned content when standards change. 

Effective accessibility planning

To counter all these barriers, you need a plan: 

• Review and update your design system. Survey your content creators and pressure-test your design system—do you have adequate styles for all your content needs? Where are people “freelancing” and creating new styles or processes that are out of compliance? Adapt your design system to support all user needs. 

• Educate and engage. If you didn’t create design documentation before launch, do it now. Include the rationale for components, so people can understand why the processes and styles are the way they are. Most users will want to support accessibility standards: they may just not know what they are. Explaining “These colors were specifically tested to work for all our audiences” encourages participation more than “This is the color palette.”

• Have an accessibility governance plan. Plan a monitoring and auditing strategy that includes who owns both day-to-day compliance and a more systematic audit, annually or at a pace that makes sense for your team. 
  • Decide if you’ll use ongoing monitoring tools, like SiteImprove, Deque, or others, which have built-in scans for accessible content. 
  • As new content or features are added, ensure updates are being tested for accessibility. Consider who is in charge of code, content, design, and third-party tools that are incorporated into your site.  
  • Create training practices to onboard new staff and content creators, and documentation practices to ensure practices are consistent and verifiable. 
  • Remember to review your governance plan annually too, not just your website content.

Evolve your practices as standards change

Keep in mind that accessibility guidelines and assistive technology will change. What was considered an “accessible” website five years ago would likely not meet the standards today. Build assessment, learning, and flexibility into your planning to respond to the changes ahead. As your work changes, processes will have to change too. 

Don’t go it alone. 

My team and I are here to support you in your quest for improved accessibility. Whether you’re looking to kick off a big redesign or want to check in on how your site is doing since it last launched, we’re here to help. Get in touch below!

We are honored to be recognized as an example of customer success and commitment through the inaugural Pantheon Partner Awards.

The Pantheon Partner Awards recognize and celebrate agency partners in the Pantheon partner community for excellence and driving standout results for their clients. This year’s winners represent a field of expert organizations dedicated to crafting extraordinary customer-first experiences by leveraging the innovative capabilities of the Pantheon platform to enhance Website Operations. 

As this year’s “Customer First” award winner, we are humbled by this recognition as a testament to our unwavering dedication to building deep and successful relationships with our clients.“This award honors the partner who has demonstrated unwavering dedication to putting customers’ needs first, taking their pain seriously, and investing in customer learning and development. Among a field of nominees, Forum One’s strong commitment to their customers earned the company this honor,” said Katie Carlin, Head of Channel at Pantheon.

Behind each project, build, campaign, or strategy, there are the people working day in and day out to solve sometimes very complex problems. Understanding and prioritizing our clients’ needs is what fuels our partnership with Pantheon, a collaboration that we’ve built through mutual respect for the power of technology to drive positive change. From our work together for clients such as the ALS Association, Fairfax County Public Schools, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), we’re more grateful than ever for our partnership today and tomorrow.

This recognition from Pantheon underlines our approach to customer success—one that transcends transactions to forge lasting relationships based on trust, cooperation, and a shared vision. This customer-first award reflects the depth of our commitment to listening, understanding, and meeting our clients’ unique needs and challenges.

Thank you again to our dear friends at Pantheon for this wonderful recognition—and congratulations to the rest of this year’s winners for all their incredible work!

Forum One has been working on a long-term team effort with Metro, the regional government agency that serves Portland, Oregon, and 23 other cities across three counties. Together, we have been collaborating to plan and implement a migration of Metro’s digital ecosystem from five standalone Drupal 7 websites into a centralized and maintainable ecosystem of Drupal 9 websites that share a common platform. 

How did we do it? This modernization project’s success is thanks to effective collaboration and a clear vision of what issues we are solving.

Establishing long-term, collaborative buy-in

We collaborated with Metro’s internal web team to define the central platform concept and engaged with stakeholders across each venue—including the main Metro website, Oregon Zoo, Oregon Convention Center, Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, and others—to explain the concept and benefits of a centralized platform and build buy-in. 

Two key aspects of this project made it unique:

1. A clear vision and purpose

First, Metro came in with a clear vision and articulation of the problem they wanted to solve and the relationship they wanted with their vendor partner. In addition to the network of sites and an interest in a shared platform, Metro was laser-focused on prioritizing accessibility and including historically marginalized communities in all its digital products. This clarity of purpose, rather than a fixed idea of an exact platform answer, allowed us to dig in, work together, and develop technical solutions and approaches that fit the need in a custom way. 

2. Intentional collaboration

Second, this was a true collaboration. The project’s build team includes Metro developers, whom Forum One supported as technical advisors as the internal team developed the platform. This included consulting on defining requirements for multilingual features, as well as accessibility and inclusion approaches. Metro’s team, while experienced with Drupal, was comfortable knowing they weren’t the sole technical experts. In cases where it wasn’t necessarily clear how to build a particular feature or component, Metro worked in collaboration with Forum One to develop the right solution.

As part of this work, we utilized documentation analysis, website and social analytics, and audience and organizational trends to produce an internal strategy report, which ultimately created a more inclusive digital experience. 

Case in point: the Oregon Zoo

Based in Portland, the Oregon Zoo is a prominent regional institution that receives around 1.5 million annual visits and helps protect more than 20 endangered and threatened species. 

As part of our work with Metro, Forum One redesigned the Oregon Zoo website on the shared Drupal 9 platform, incorporating new branding and design guidelines to make the website an accessible, multilingual, and mobile-first digital experience. The redesign includes integrations with external ticketing and donation platforms to create a seamless user experience. 

Mobile-first and led by accessibility, the Zoo’s new site has been a huge success. As a follow-on of the successful and enthusiastically-received launch, Metro and Forum One are documenting and applying lessons learned in other areas of the digital ecosystem, allowing for the next site to be even more efficiently built using the refined framework we’ve put in place as a team.

Moving forward

A key takeaway from this work is the power of real partnerships. Working so closely allowed for constant client quality assurance. Real-time decision-making and buy-in increased success, reduced risk, and helped us stay on budget. 

It isn’t always easy, but we are confident that these lessons can be applied to other organizations. It’s entirely possible to build great accessibility-centered projects, on time and within budget. 

Looking to modernize your Drupal website ecosystem? Get in touch today—our team would love to connect!

However, developing these conversational AI applications in a robust, scalable, and efficient way is no easy task. The following is a comprehensive guide to help organizations looking to build a conversational AI that is enhanced by the use of RAG, including considerations for planning, design, and technology stack.

Choose the Right Approach

There are many options for designing and developing a RAG-enhanced conversational AI solution. High-level options include custom GPTs on top of general purpose Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, vertical-specific out-of-the-box solutions, semi-custom vendor solutions such as Azure OpenAI, and fully custom models and applications. 

Each type of solution has benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to understand the landscape and map the right solution to the use case at hand. A robust discovery phase is recommended to understand both user and organizational requirements prior to selecting a particular approach, solution, vendor, or model. 

Design Responsibly

Responsible AI refers to the practice of designing, developing, and deploying artificial intelligence systems in a manner that is ethical, transparent, and accountable. It is an important factor to consider when looking at not only designing a RAG-based conversational AI, but also when designing organizational AI policy in general. Designing responsible AI involves ensuring that AI technologies are being used to benefit people and society while minimizing harm and respecting human rights. 

Key principles and considerations in responsible AI include, but aren’t limited to:

• Ethical Consideration: AI should be developed and used according to ethical guidelines and values. This includes respecting human dignity, privacy, and rights, and ensuring fairness and justice in AI outcomes.
• Privacy and Security: The development and use of AI must respect user privacy and ensure data security. This includes protecting personal and sensitive data from unauthorized access and ensuring that data collection and use follow relevant laws and regulations.
• Safety and Reliability: AI systems should be safe and reliable. They should function as intended, and there should be measures in place to prevent and mitigate harmful malfunctions or misuse.
• Human in the Loop: AI should augment, not replace, human decision-making. Humans should remain in control of critical decisions, and AI should be used as a tool to enhance human capabilities.
• Inclusivity: AI development should include diverse perspectives and stakeholders to ensure that AI systems are inclusive and address the needs of a wide range of users.

Plan for Scalability & Change

• Plan for Scalability: RAG applications can grow quickly in terms of data and user load. Utilizing cloud services like AWS, Azure or Google Cloud is important in providing scalability and flexibility. In addition, consider container-based or serverless solutions that can provide unlimited scalability while limiting overall cost.
• Avoid Vendor and Model Lock-in: The AI space is still evolving rapidly. It’s important to be able to test various pre-trained models to determine which delivers the best results. In addition, a worst-case scenario is being highly coupled to an outdated model as advancements continue. To mitigate this, it’s important to follow a microservice-based approach and to implement a tech stack that allows for easy swapping between models. This can be built as a custom solution or through utilizing tools such as LangChain.
• Continuously Learn and Adapt: It’s important to design processes and implement systems that allow for the continual training of models with new data to improve the accuracy and relevance of responses over time. This includes setting up feedback loops from user interactions and vetting and testing models with internal stakeholders before wider release or adoption by the public.

Consider the User Experience

As with any digital product, the success of a conversational AI relies heavily on the user experience. The interface should be intuitive and responsive, providing quick, relevant, and accurate answers to user questions. There are several user experience considerations unique to RAG-enhanced conversational AIs that are vital to ensuring the best experience for users, including:

• Context Awareness: The system should maintain context over the course of a conversation, understanding previous interactions and adjusting responses accordingly.
• Consistency: Responses should be consistent in voice, tone, style, and factual accuracy across different sessions and contexts.
• Latency: Users expect quick responses in conversational interfaces. The latency in fetching documents and generating responses should be minimized to maintain a smooth and natural conversation flow. Techniques such as streaming, back-pressure, and response caching can be used to mitigate latency.
• Feedback Loops: Allow users to correct misunderstandings by the AI, which can help in refining the context or the user’s intent. Additionally, implement features alongside the conversational AI for users to provide feedback, which can then be used to improve model performance and accuracy.
• Response Quality and Relevance: The most important factor is working to ensure that the responses generated are not only relevant but also accurate, providing trustworthy and verifiable information. Techniques such as pre-grounding the model, built-in prompt engineering, and post-grounding in the UI can all be used to improve quality and accuracy.

Choose the Right Technology Stack

When developing a fully custom conversational AI, it’s important to choose a technology stack that is flexible, scalable, and future-friendly. There are several layers of the stack that are important to consider when developing a RAG-enhanced conversational AI solution:

• Data Layer: The data layer is the base layer of the stack and consists of connections to external and internal data sources, a way to store data points, and a means to transform data into a usable state through data cleaning, processing, and transformation. From a database perspective, options include relational databases such as PostgreSQL and vector databases such as Neo4j. Vector or graph-based databases can often offer more efficiency when querying relationships between data points. 
• Retrieval Layer: The retrieval layer is an integral part of the stack where search and querying of the data take place to support the generation of responses. Tools such as Pgvector can be used for efficient vector search and to perform advanced search operations vital for handling large datasets and complex queries. Selecting the right technology or combination of technologies for the retrieval layer depends on specific project needs such as the expected query load, the type of queries, latency requirements, and the nature of the data involved. 
• Machine Learning Model: The machine learning layer is where model training and management take place. This layer typically includes a framework such as TensorFlow or PyTorch to handle advanced model training and deployment. As part of this layer, leveraging pre-trained models such as GPT for generating human-like text or BERT for understanding context can significantly reduce development time and improve overall quality and efficiency. It is also important to structure this layer in a way that allows for migrating between pre-trained models and model versions or using multiple pre-trained models for different needs, either through a custom orchestration layer or off-the-shelf solutions such as LangChain.
• Application Layer: The application layer consists of both the APIs used to handle interaction between the user interface and the back-end AI services as well as the front-end application that users interact with. It is important to construct this layer in a way that is flexible and scalable and in a decoupled fashion. Conversational AI frameworks such as the Vercel AI SDK can be leveraged to build a high-quality user experience. These frameworks come with pre-built functionality for things like streaming, back-pressure, and response caching to mitigate latency as well as helpers for orchestrating the interaction between the user interface, model APIs, and pre-trained models. 

Final Thoughts

Building a RAG-enhanced conversational AI involves careful planning, design, and consideration of the technology stack. It requires a blend of robust data handling, efficient retrieval mechanisms, powerful machine-learning models, and an excellent user experience. By thoughtfully integrating these components alongside a responsible approach to AI, a solution can be created that exceeds user expectations, provides insightful and context-aware interactions, and continues to scale and improve alongside the rapidly changing landscape of generative AI.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to determine what information to retain and the best way to store it. Additionally, we’ll cover GA4 retention considerations that may impact your decision. We’ll also provide insights into the reasons behind this transition, its challenges, and practical strategies for ensuring the continuity of your analytics efforts.

Breaking down the loss of access to UA data and GA4 data retention

Universal Analytics (UA, sometimes called GA3) was the previous version of Google Analytics, with GA4 introduced as the latest version in 2022. With the GA4 rollout, standard UA properties ceased collecting new data on July 1, 2023. All existing UA data remains accessible, but organizations will lose access to that information on July 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, GA4 has new data retention limits that didn’t exist in UA. With UA, organizations could retain user-level and event-level data indefinitely, but in GA4, the maximum data retention period for user-level and event-level data is 50 months, and that’s only available to users of Google’s paid Analytics 360 plan. Organizations using the free version of GA4 can only retain this data for 14 months.

We mention these two considerations together because we often find that an organization’s answer to whether it will retain its GA4 data beyond 14 months significantly impacts whether and how it should retain its UA data.

To reiterate, here are answers to a few common questions before we outline the options available:

Can I access my old UA data after July 1, 2024?

After this date, UA data will no longer be available unless you’ve saved or migrated it.

Can I migrate data or reports from UA to GA4?

GA4 is a replacement for UA rather than an update to it. As a result, you cannot migrate UA data to GA4. One reason for this is the difference in the tool’s data models: UA relies on session-based data, while GA4 operates on an event-based model.

Is there a way to export UA or GA4 data?

Exporting data from Google Analytics is possible and recommended by Google as the solution for long-term data retention. By exporting data, users can maintain access to historical comparisons and enable future analysis.

5 options for exporting UA and GA4 data

Given the time constraints on access to UA data, it’s imperative to determine your organization’s approach promptly. This guide will assist you in exploring the available options. We’ll delve into five main approaches to exporting data, allowing you to make an informed decision tailored to your needs.

1. Export Google Analytics 360 and GA4 data to BigQuery

Users of Google’s paid 360 version of UA have the valuable option to export their UA data directly into Google BigQuery, a powerful data warehouse solution. In GA4, Google has extended this ability to standard (free) properties. However, the standard properties are limited to exporting a maximum of 1 million events per day. This integration is ideal for organizations looking to analyze large volumes of data beyond the capabilities of standard reporting interfaces.

One advantage of moving your analytics data into BigQuery is data from other sources, such as your CMS, CRM, or social media management software, can also be added, enabling a more comprehensive view of information about your audiences.

Working with Google Analytics data in BigQuery requires writing queries using SQL-like syntax. You should ensure that your staff is comfortable working with the raw data through querying, as various data sources (such as GA4 and UA) will have differing data models and require manipulation before use. Additionally, while BigQuery is compatible with many other systems, confirming that your organization’s other data tools will work smoothly with it is worthwhile.

2. Use a third-party data connector

Many third-party tools are available that allow you to export data from UA or GA4 and import it to the data warehouse or database of your choice. Some popular tools include Supermetrics, FiveTran, Analytics Canvas, and Power My Analytics. The best option for your organization will depend on your existing data tools, budget, and interface preferences.

Data connectors can consolidate data from many different platforms, not just UA and GA4, significantly streamlining the data aggregation process and providing a more comprehensive view of your organization’s data. They can also provide a platform for ETL processes: in other words, Extracting data from the systems where it is collected, Transforming, cleaning, or otherwise manipulating it into a more usable structure, and then Loading it directly to business intelligence tools or data warehouses including BigQuery. Connectors eliminate the need for manual imports and reduce the risk of manual errors. Additionally, automation enables them to update your data more frequently.

Third-party connectors usually offer low-code options for ETL processes, but there may still be some need for SQL querying or other technical skills and understanding. While these tools can provide significant benefits in terms of efficiency and data management, there may be challenges in integrating and utilizing these tools within an existing data system. Their costs can vary as well, and they have a variety of pricing models that may or may not work well for your organization. Architects and analysts may need to invest time in understanding the intricacies of the tools available to make an informed decision.

3. Export data using Google Analytics Dev Tools: Query Explorer (API)

Google Analytics operates on a query-based framework, allowing users to use Core Reporting APIs to extract data from a Google Analytics view and generate customized results.

How to Use Query Explorer

Query Explorer is specifically designed for UA data, though you can also use it for GA4 data. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to effectively utilize this powerful resource:

1. Open the Google Analytics Query Explorer at ga-dev-tools.google/query-explorer/.
2. Select Your Account and Property: Log in to your Google account and choose the specific account, property, and view you want to work with.
3. Set Query Parameters: The “Set query parameters” section is where most of your selections will occur:
   • Date Range: Choose the timeframe for your query using formats such as calendar dates (e.g., 2021-01-31), relative dates (e.g., today or yesterday), or specific time intervals (e.g., 30daysAgo or 7daysAgo).
   • Metrics: Select quantitative measurements like Pageviews, New Users, or Conversions.
   • Dimensions: Choose qualitative attributes like Source/Medium, Country or Region, or Device Category to provide context to your metrics.
   • Filters (optional): Narrow down your dataset to focus on specific subsets of information.
   • Segments (optional): Isolate specific groups of users or sessions within your data for more targeted analysis.
4. Run Query: Once your parameters are set, click the “Run Query” button. Query Explorer will generate a report of your specific data and display it at the bottom of the page.
5. Export: Export your report as a TSV file to store your data outside of Google Analytics and Query Explorer, enabling it to be imported or analyzed in the future. Alternatively, copy the API Request URL to integrate the data into other applications.
6. Repeat: Follow the same process to archive all the metrics and dimensions you may want for future reference.

This method allows you to extract highly customized reports from a straightforward interface. There are automated and manual export options, and the resulting data can be used in various ways. However, the API that Query Explorer relies on is subject to quota limits, so this approach works best for small datasets. Organizations with large datasets can explore scheduling data extraction over time to overcome quota limitations.

4. Export data using the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on

The Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-on is a tool developed by Google that allows users to import data from their UA properties directly into Google Sheets. This add-on provides a seamless way to access and analyze Google Analytics data within the familiar environment of Google Sheets, enabling users to create custom reports, perform data analysis, and visualize insights using the powerful features of Google Sheets.

This add-on is based on the same API as the Query Explorer described in the previous section, so it has very similar benefits and drawbacks. The primary difference is that the results will be held in a Google Sheet, allowing for further data manipulation and reporting directly in Google Sheets.

Additionally, Google has released a new version of this add-on for GA4 called Reports Builder for Google Analytics. However, the new version is less capable, and many users have reported challenges with the new add-on.

5. Manual Export

The final option is manually exporting any data you need from Google Analytics. This approach is the most straightforward way to retain your historical data, but the process can be tedious.

How to Manually Export Data from UA

1. Open your standard Google Analytics report, such as Acquisitions > All Traffic > Sources/Mediums.
2. Customize the report as needed by applying segmentation or filtering. For example, you could segment your Sources/Mediums report by country or device.
3. Once the report is customized, click on the “EXPORT” option located below the report.
4. From the export options, choose the desired format for the document from the drop-down list. Select the format that best suits your needs and preferences.

While this method offers the most straightforward way to export historical data from Google Analytics, it may also have the most limitations for most use cases. For example, large datasets may encounter restrictions during the export process, potentially affecting the completeness of the exported historical data. It can also be time-consuming and requires determining a storage location and naming convention for the resulting files.

Which option for exporting Google Analytics data is best?

The best option for exporting Google Analytics data depends on your needs and preferences. We strongly encourage you to consider your future reporting needs, which will define your export and storage requirements. Once you know your requirements, here are some factors to consider when choosing between your options:

1. Format: Consider the format that best suits your needs. Google Analytics offers various export formats, including PDF, spreadsheet, and CSV, or export to data warehouses such as BigQuery. Choose the format that allows easy analysis and integration with your existing tools and workflows.
2. Customization: Evaluate the level of customization offered by each export option. Some options allow you to customize the data before exporting by applying filters or selecting specific metrics and dimensions.
3. Automation: Consider the skills and time available to your data team. More automated processes can save significant time but may require specialized skills to work with the tools and the resulting data sets.
4. Data size: Review the size of the data you need to export. Some export options may limit the amount of data that can be exported at once. Ensure that the chosen option can handle the volume of data you need to export without encountering restrictions.
5. Compatibility: Evaluate the export option’s compatibility with your existing tools and systems. Choose an option that seamlessly integrates with your preferred analytics or data management platforms to ensure smooth data transfer and analysis.

Ultimately, the best option for exporting Google Analytics data is the one that aligns with your specific requirements, offering the right balance of format, customization, automation, data size handling, and compatibility.

We’re here to help

It can be overwhelming and worrying to face the possibility of losing the data you have in UA, especially while you may be simultaneously learning to use GA4 and understanding its data storage limitations. We hope this blog post clarifies your options and provides a solution that works for you and your organization’s unique needs. Forum One is here for you if you still have questions or need help! Work with our data and analytics experts to determine the right solution for you and complete the migration efficiently and accurately.

Not a new tool, a new way of working

It’s helpful to think about composable architecture as an evolution. We don’t build websites the same way we did 20 years ago—if you were around then, you’ll remember editing in HTML, maybe some design in Dreamweaver (!), and making whole pages live from your in-house server.  

More recently, over the past ten to fifteen years, we’ve gotten used to a CMS like Drupal or WordPress being a “one-stop shop” for website builds and daily management. We’ve built—and still build—a lot of sites in Drupal and WordPress. Many of our partners in the mission-driven space are comfortable with the idea that one CMS is where you create content, design pages, enter and access user data, manage images, and more.

Composable architecture just means all these functions don’t have to live within a single CMS. It’s “composable” because you can use different tools and processes and put them all together through an API. Just like a universal power cord, API standards ensure that all the tools and processes work together. And just like Lego bricks, where the same components can create many different structures, the same digital components can fit together for various end products. 

As organizational needs continue to evolve, technology decisions are more and more being made based on the ability to use the best tools in the most flexible ways, rather than having an all-in-one solution that might have some great elements, some ‘okay’, and others that simply don’t fit the organization’s requirements.

In 2024, mission-driven organizations absolutely have access to the industry’s top technology tools, and being able to adopt and integrate them into their existing digital ecosystems is more realistic than ever.

What are the benefits of composable architecture?

One of the most important benefits of composable architecture is flexibility. With composable architecture, you can prioritize a best-in-class tool for one function you need, while still using systems that work for you. 

Here are a few examples of recent work in composable architecture, the reason partners are choosing it, and the benefits they see.

Smithsonian: Efficiency

With the Smithsonian, we’re currently working within a composable stack that includes Contentful for content management and a headless front-end on Next.js, among other things. 

By leveraging self-contained technologies we can significantly reduce development time and costs. Working outside of an all-in-one CMS,  there’s no risk of breaking the content editing experience or corrupting a database while we develop new things. Because of this, our team can focus more on merging and testing new features. 

We’ve found this to be true in general across several composable engagements – as we focus more on headless, microservice-based solutions, we can direct more time at delivering quality features for users, and less time debugging or managing the complexities of overly coupled systems. Taking a composable approach has resulted in much more efficiency in our development time.

NYU’s City Health Dashboard: Agility

With swappable components and services, we can quickly adapt to evolving needs, from changes in the marketplace to regulatory changes that can affect the user experience. 

Working in a composable architecture means we can make targeted changes without one thing being dependent on the other. This is an approach we’ve been taking for the City Health Dashboard, a project we designed and developed with NYU Langone Health’s Department of Population Health. City Health Dashboard is a powerful tool to analyze health data for America’s cities, with the goal being to build healthier and more equitable communities. 

Over the past year, we’ve been working to modernize and update the tech stack behind the site. First, we migrated the front-end to Next.js, then in a later stage we swapped out a dated Drupal instance for Contentful, and currently, without the need to host a backend CMS, we’re able to implement a serverless architecture solution using Vercel for the front-end as well as a serverless PostGres solution for the database tied to Carto for the mapping functionality. 

The result has been a modern overhaul of technology, a higher-performing site, and a lower total cost of ownership than the previous tech stack that was in place. The composable approach allows for changing out pieces as you have time and budget, as opposed to rewriting everything from scratch.

American Women’s History Museum: Scaling Up and Down Quickly

Another major benefit of composable architecture is the ability to scale up or down as needed. An all-in-one CMS solution typically includes functionality you may not need or ever use but carries the burden of maintenance. With a composable approach, you can bring in only what you need, and scale up or down your solution as you see fit. 

Forum One recently launched Becoming Visible, with our client the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. Becoming Visible is a digital exhibition and as such, it needed to be highly interactive and immersive but didn’t have much in the way of integrations or other technical needs. 

The original plan was to launch the exhibition as a more traditional Drupal build. However, due to the rather limited technical needs, we opted to scale down the tech stack – remove the need for Drupal, focus our efforts on a Next.js experience, and utilize Vercel and Vercel Blob for media. 

This allowed us to focus time and effort on the interactive nature of the exhibition and launch quickly with limited overhead and cost. The result was an amazing digital exhibition, delivered in time for Women’s History Month, that is staged for scale over time. 

One more benefit: Security

A final, but major benefit of a fully composable solution is that it’s more secure. Composable solutions utilize cloud-native components hosted on platforms that offer automatic updates, including security patches. This means that the underlying infrastructure of your application can stay up to date with the latest security measures without manual intervention.

It also means there’s a reduced attack surface. By decoupling the backend from the front end, headless systems have fewer entry points to exploit, making them all that much more secure.

Get started

New ways of working can prompt lots of questions! If you’re interested in exploring composable architecture solutions but are not sure where to start, we’re here to help. We can explore what’s working for you now and how an evolution to composable architecture could strengthen your digital goals over time. Get in touch!