Save UDLE

Timeline

2 months (2024)

Role

UX & UI Designer, Web Developer, Campaign Strategist

Team

Independent designer collaborating directly with the café owner

Project overview

UDLE is a student-run café based at Swinburne University, known for its home-style meals and community-focused atmosphere. During the summer break, the café faced closure as most students, its core customers, left campus, leaving insufficient income to cover rent.

To help sustain operations, I initiated Save UDLE, a two-month campaign to raise $5,000 through design-led storytelling and community mobilisation. The project united a visual rebrand, a redesigned website with fundraising and event features, and a 30-day social media campaign to build awareness and drive donations.

Working closely with the café owner, I led the campaign from concept to launch, ensuring every design decision contributed to a cohesive story and tangible community impact.

Challenge

UDLE’s digital presence did not reflect its community value or capture the urgency of its financial situation. Social posts were inconsistent, the website had no e-commerce or booking system, and there was no clear way for supporters to contribute online.

The goal was: Rebuild trust and awareness through authentic storytelling and accessible digital tools that turned followers into donors and active participants.

Design process

Through stakeholder discussions and a brief SWOT analysis, I identified three key audience segments: students, university staff, and locals near Hawthorn station. The main challenge was clear. Despite UDLE’s strong community presence, awareness of its financial struggle was low and trust in online fundraising was limited.

The campaign focused on designing transparency and connection into every touchpoint. I redefined UDLE’s visual identity to reposition it from a casual hangout space to a focused café brand, built a website that acted as both a storytelling and fundraising hub, and led a 30-day social media campaign to humanise UDLE’s story and inspire donations.

All design work was prototyped in Figma and tested live on WordPress to ensure fast performance and accessibility. Daily feedback from Marco and early viewers guided continuous refinements, allowing the campaign to evolve quickly while staying true to its goal of saving the café through collective action and authentic storytelling.

Visual identity

Building on insights from the campaign strategy, the rebrand gave UDLE a clearer purpose and stronger brand presence. Previously seen as a space for games, karaoke, and student gatherings, UDLE often attracted visitors who socialised without purchasing. The new identity introduced a more defined café aesthetic while maintaining its approachable student spirit.

The visual system balanced professionalism with warmth, applying consistent colour, typography, and layout across the website, social media, and in-store materials. This gave UDLE a cohesive, credible image that encouraged customers to view it not only as a community hub but as a café worth supporting.

Event posters

Main menu

Web design &

development

The new website served as both a storytelling platform and a conversion gateway. Key features included:

Donation integration with GoFundMe as the primary funnel
E-commerce store for merchandise and menu items
Event booking system for barista classes and board-game nights

The interface was kept minimal and mobile-first to prioritise readability and ease of donation. Testing ensured each CTA was visible within the first scroll on mobile devices.

Social media

campaign

Serving as the heart of the Save UDLE story, the 30-day Instagram series treated each post as a mini-chapter, featuring candid moments, staff stories, and updates on progress toward the goal. The strategy blended emotional storytelling with informational content to keep audiences engaged daily.

Campaign performance:

Over 80,000 total views in December 2024
$5,000 raised via GoFundMe within 30 days
138 shares on the top-performing video
2,400 views and 5 hours of watch time on the final recap post

Results

The campaign achieved its goal of raising $5,000, allowing UDLE to pay its rent and continue operating into the next semester. While website ticket sales were limited during the campaign, barista classes remained active after it ended, providing an ongoing income stream. The website was later retired once the fundraising goal was met, but the digital assets and brand system continue to inform UDLE’s marketing today.

Reflection

The project revealed several areas for improvement. The main website should have been separated from the Save UDLE campaign page to keep regular content accessible after the fundraiser, as merging both limited the café’s long-term online presence. Additionally, no one purchased tickets for board game nights or barista classes, likely because users were more emotionally inclined to donate than to buy, indicating that event CTAs and checkout flows needed stronger incentives and clearer value communication.