Credit union think tank’s massive research library puts human well-being first
Community is no mere buzzword to credit unions. More collaborative than competitive, they depend on collective power like a rising tide. One innovation lifts all—so long as people hear about it. Enter Filene.
- Services
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Strategy, UX, Design, Analytics, and Development: Visual identity extension, Content strategy, Website redesign, Front-end development, CMS: Craft, GA4, SEO
- Industry
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Finance
Filene is a nonprofit member organization known for its in-depth study of the consumer finance industry. Believing the best way to improve consumer well-being is by supporting credit union innovations, they’ve brought together a growing network of credit union leaders representing more than 53 million Americans and $893 billion in credit union assets. This cooperative nature of credit unions is the fundamental basis for Filene’s knowledge-sharing platform.
Reorganized and rebuilt from the ground up, Filene’s new digital home helps credit unions tap into reports, operationalize strategies, and implement proven, transformational change. The website is organized by and for dialogue, a process and outcome that paid homage to the dialogical inquiry common to Filene research, from the co-creative working sessions which inspired the many tools and content design to the investigative framing of emerging topics. Action answers, drawn from around the field rather than academic theory, highlighting the devout pragmatism behind Filene’s mission.
Primarily a logged-in member experience, it was important to provide a window into the depth of available resources to convert new readership. Ungated content is nevertheless membership worthy. The uncommon beauty of the credit union community is the collective strength drawn from the free flow of ideas, a value cherished by Filene and one reflected in its distribution model. For their part members receive increased depth and access, as well as personalized content based on declared interests, searches, click data, and membership level. Tiered access is handled through a tailor-made CMS solution, starting with Craft and coupled with front-end reactivity.
The design elaborates on the existing Filene visual brand. By combining carefully selected speaker “power photos” and reinterpreting the iconic Filene asterisk mark as explosive motif, the updated visual language finally agrees with what Filene has been explicitly doing for years: innovating through an unflagging call to service.
None of this would have been possible without the generous contributions and participation of Mike Kiffel, Patsy Stewart, Holly Fearing, Brittany Hoban, Ralph Paoli, Jenny Armistead, and David Neurman, whose warmth, expertise, and insight almost made our jobs too fun. We were lucky to share in this with you.