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Project overview
The Leprosy Research Initiative funds and coordinates leprosy research across more than 20 countries. Their website is central to how they attract researchers, inform funders, and communicate the scope of their work to a global audience. Over time, after multiple rounds of changes, the site had lost its effectiveness, to the point where it no longer reflected how the institute wanted to be perceived externally.
They asked Sparkr to review their digital presence and identify how to bring it in line with their communication goals.
Approach and problem solving
Rather than measuring the site against generic best practices, we started from the needs and constraints of the institute and its audiences. Most projects go wrong here: the recommendations are technically correct but hard to turn into practice. They're either too generic to act on, or so comprehensive they end up in a drawer. We shaped everything around what LRI's team could realistically implement, and in what order.
We started with a structured appraoch to understand the strategy: a stakeholder meeting and a survey to map their goals, their audiences, and the friction points they suspected. From there, we conducted a full website audit covering navigation and information architecture, content clarity, accessibility, search functionality, visual design, and the application pathway for research funding.
The audit identified several clear priorities: the information architecture was too layered for the people who needed it most, the homepage message buried the organization's core purpose, funded research projects were hard to find, and key calls to action failed basic accessibility standards.
The most important part of the work was not listing what was wrong, but guiding the organization on what to prioritize. Rather than overwhelming the team with a long action list, we provided a clear path forward, one that took their internal capabilities into account.
Do you want to download your own list of parameters? You can download our list of parameters here.
The result
LRI acted on the recommendations. They restructured and simplified the site's information architecture, sharpened the homepage message to a single clear statement ("Towards Zero Leprosy"), and improved the overall clarity of their communication. The team also increased the discoverability of their research and funded projects portfolio, and brought key calls to action up to accessibility standards.
"We were extremely pleased with our collaboration and the outcomes. The audit was conducted efficiently, and we valued the introductory meeting and survey that ensured he had a comprehensive understanding of our audit goals. He readily explained improvements we can implement on our website in a way that non-experts could understand. Overall, we are very pleased with the collaboration, efficiency, professionalism, and his pleasant personality."
Chrysa - Head of Communications, Leprosy Research Initiative
