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FACTSPACE WEST AFRICA – WEBSITE REDESIGN

A credible home for West Africa's fact-checkers, with every verdict showing its working.

Client
FactSpace West Africa
Service provided
Website redesign – Editorial platform
Duration
4 weeks
Year
2025
Tools
Figma
Platform
Web (desktop)
View prototype
FactSpace West Africa – Website redesign: A credible home for West Africa's fact-checkers

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

  • FactSpace is an independent, non-partisan fact-checking organisation and IFCN signatory working across West Africa.
  • Its work spans several countries, but the old site didn't make it easy to find a country's fact-checks, or to see how a verdict was reached.
  • For a fact-checker, credibility is the product: sources, method and independence need to be visible, not buried in an About page.

TARGET USERS

  • Readers: checking a claim they saw on social media, deciding whether to trust the verdict

  • Journalists and partners: looking for country coverage and method, deciding whether to cite or collaborate

  • Funders: checking independence and impact, deciding whether to support

THE GOAL

Make FactSpace read as an institution: find a fact-check by country in two clicks, see how every verdict was reached, and see who stands behind it.

MY PROCESS

  1. Content audit
  2. Information architecture
  3. Wireframes
  4. UI
  5. Prototype

KEY DECISIONS

  1. Fact-checks by country, not only by date: a flag strip on every listing, and a page per country
  2. One article template for every check: Claim, Source, By and Verdict above the fold, then Research, Fact Check and Verdict
  3. Publish the rating scale: ten verdict labels, each with a one-line definition
  4. Ghana links out to the existing GhanaFact site instead of duplicating it
  5. Trust signals on every page: the IFCN badge, a Submit-a-Claim form and the editorial-independence statement

THE SOLUTION

  • Home: a clear promise ('Ensuring Information Accuracy & Accountability'), latest fact-checks, country entry points, press releases and partners.
  • Fact Checks: a hub with filters and 'Load more', plus pages for The Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
  • Verdict article: the claim and verdict up front, the research trail below, attached media, sharing and previous/next.
  • Institution pages: Disinfo Lab (analysis, election monitoring, corrections), What We Do with the rating scale, Who We Are with IFCN principles, team and funding, plus Contact and Donate.

KEY FEATURES

  1. Country-based fact-checks
  2. Claim → verdict article template
  3. Published rating scale
  4. Disinfo Lab & election monitoring
  5. Submit-a-claim form
  6. IFCN, team & funding pages

DESIGN SYSTEM & ACCESSIBILITY

  • Editorial type pairing: Barlow Condensed for headlines, Montserrat for reading; one teal (#274E58) carries the brand.
  • A fixed article hierarchy so every verdict reads the same way, whoever wrote it.
  • Next round: show verdicts as a labelled badge with an icon, not red text alone, and darken placeholder grey #828282 (3.9:1).
View gallery (11 images)Hide gallery
FactSpace sitemap: fact-checks by country, Disinfo Lab, and institution pages(opens full size in a new tab)
Two ways in: by what you're checking, or by who's checking it.
FactSpace home hero: Ensuring Information Accuracy and Accountability(opens full size in a new tab)
A promise, not a slogan.
Fact-check article with claim, source, author and verdict above the fold(opens full size in a new tab)
Every verdict shows its working, in the same order.
The ten FactSpace verdict labels and their definitions(opens full size in a new tab)
A published scale makes every verdict accountable.
Fact Checks page for The Gambia with country flag strip(opens full size in a new tab)
Each country gets its own page, and a strip to jump to the others.
Disinfo Lab page with analysis, election monitoring, press releases and corrections(opens full size in a new tab)
Beyond fact-checks: analysis, elections and public corrections.
FactSpace's editorial workflow from acquisition to publication(opens full size in a new tab)
The method, shown as a sequence rather than a paragraph.
Who We Are page with IFCN principles, team and funding(opens full size in a new tab)
Independence, people and money, all in the open.
Contact page with contact cards and form(opens full size in a new tab)
Four ways to reach the team, then a form.
Contrast checks for FactSpace teal, placeholder grey and verdict colour(opens full size in a new tab)
Teal holds up; verdicts shouldn't rely on red alone.
Table of FactSpace copy patterns(opens full size in a new tab)
Plain statements of method, everywhere they're needed.

BY THE NUMBERS

Countries covered (Ghana via GhanaFact)
5
Article template: claim, research, verdict
1
Credibility shown on every page
IFCN

OUTCOME

  • A site that reads as an institution rather than a blog, with method and independence built into the page structure.
  • Readers can reach any country's fact-checks from any listing, and every article shows its working.
  • Supporters get a direct route to give, and readers a direct route to submit a claim.

What I learned

For a fact-checking brand, showing your sources is the design.

View prototype