Brand StrategyVisual IdentityWeb Strategy & UX
Institute for the Study of War
A more accessible hub for conflict insights
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) plays a critical role in providing timely, authoritative analysis on complex global conflicts. As a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization, ISW produces analysis covering topics from daily military operations to deep historical intelligence research.
However, their previous digital presence struggled to effectively convey their expertise and make accessible the vast amounts of information ISW provides. Recognizing these challenges, ISW partnered with Grafik to completely reimagine their digital experience.
A smarter, stronger platform for ISW
We partnered with ISW to reimagine their online presence—creating an intuitive site that makes research easy to find and engaging to explore. A bold new design, smarter navigation, and refined structure bring clarity to ISW’s mission, while built-in security and AI-driven tools ensure the platform is both protected and future-ready.
What made it work?
Attention to every detail
Grafik began with an extensive strategic immersion, conducting thorough research including website analytics, competitive audit, persona refinement, and stakeholder workshops. This foundational effort informed the creation of a robust content strategy focused on enhancing user journeys, reorganizing navigation, and driving engagement across distinct audience groups ranging from high-level policymakers and warfighters to scholars and the general public.
Informed by the strategy, Grafik iterated on a comprehensive information architecture (IA), reorganizing and refining multiple times as the collaborative effort led ISW to discover new organizational needs for content presentation. In addition to the IA, we worked closely with ISW on a taxonomy that added layered cataloging options to make their content much more discoverable. Significant efforts went into wireframing and UX design, crafting intuitive templates, and ensuring accessibility compliance to AA standards. The visual design phase resulted in a clean, contemporary site that leverages dynamic maps and interactive content to enhance user experience
Putting A.I. to work
ISW hosts more than 24K pieces of research and analysis on its site, and publishes new reports, maps, articles, and more each day. To ensure that no content got lost, the Grafik team created new AI tools and programming to account for each page, remove redundancies, and transform tagging structures to match content to the new organizational strategy.
In addition, the development process leveraged WordPress as well as several integrations including ArcGIS, DonorPerfect, Google Analytics, and Constant Contact. Grafik implemented a complex faceted search feature to make the depth of research and insights more accessible and discoverable. A meticulous content migration strategy was executed, carefully transferring over 8,000 pages from legacy systems, significantly improving usability and organization.
24k+
Website pages migrated and created
17k+
Maps Collected in a new Map Room
49M
Website Pageviews
65+
product lines reorganized and tagged
Outcome
The result is a strategic, technology-forward website that not only reinforces ISW’s thought leadership but also vastly improves audience engagement and accessibility of their critical research. ISW now possesses a robust digital platform strategically aligned with their mission, ensuring they can continue to inform and shape critical conversations around global security and grow for years to come.