Case Study
Coaching helps people find their way forward. But for the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the global body that sets coaching standards for 58,000+ members in more than 90 countries, its own website had become hard to navigate. Prospective coaches, credential seekers, and members struggled to find what they needed, and much of the content had gone stale. For the front door to a global profession, that friction worked against ICF's mission of advancing coaching excellence worldwide.
We started with a discovery-only engagement that ran more than a year, giving a highly collaborative organization a shared, evidence-based picture of its users. We doubled our standard research to 20 interviews across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific, then used card sorting and tree testing to build a research-led information architecture around what people come to do. We added a unified events and course directory, a live chapter map fed by a NetForum Enterprise integration, and single sign-on. Because a rebrand was coming, we built the site to absorb a full visual reskin, which we delivered after launch.
The new coachingfederation.org follows the coaching journey end to end, so no one needs insider knowledge to find their way. In 2026, it won the Website category at PR Daily's Nonprofit Communications Awards.
- Winner of PR Daily's 2026 Nonprofit Communications Award for Website
- Live chapter map pulling 140+ chapters from NetForum Enterprise
- 101% more returning users in the first nine months
- Individual membership pages traffic increased by 144% in the first nine months
Global chapter map: 140+ chapters pulled live from NetForum Enterprise, so members can find local communities without manual updates.
Unified events and course directory to find learning by topic and date, resulting in 43% increase in traffic.
Research-led navigation: Information Architecture built from stakeholder interviews, card sorting, and tree testing, organized around what users came to do.
ICF made a fundamental shift in mindset to move away from a site organized around our internal structure. We had to understand that we are not the user and design for multiple audiences at once. Yoko Co's extensive research and testing shaped a site where visitors can feel there’s something here for them, no matter where they are in their coaching journey."
Laura Shrake, UXC
ICF Director of Digital Marketing & UX
