The Challenge
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international organisation with a huge membership in almost all countries of the world. It's main and only purspose of existence is to help those affected by alcohol. Members in Bangalore, India, approached crossroad to redesign the Bangalore website to more closely match the official Alcoholics Anonymous site. Yet as this site was to have material that was not officially accepted as AA-approved literature, it was to be made clear to a visitor that this site had no affiliation to the original site. We had to design a site that would be immediately recongnisable by members and yet be different enough to avoid controversies regarding appropriateness of content.

The Process
The nature of the organisation being such, many members around the world have sprung their own websites to cater to the needs of local communities. When we first scoured the internet looking for design directions, it quickly became obvious that while plenty of material is already available out there, none of the sites had covered the subject on alcoholism in a comprehensive manner. Often, being designed by individuals with little experience in design, navigating those sites was also rather confusing.

The official website was on a standard of its own and we decided to use that as a starting point for the redesign. It was clear from the beginning that the site had to consist of two distinct sections that would make it clear to a visitor what was AA approved material and what was not.

We added two more sections to complete the masthead and once we settled on a suitable layout grid we were ready to build the actual pages.

The Result
aabangalore.org has received a lot of praise from members all around the world and is one of the most comprehensive websites on alcoholism and its effects on people. It attracts visitors from all over the world thanks to its comprehensiveness and ease of navigation.

Having the freedom to present information that is not necessarily approved by AA has given members the added advantage of presenting material that has helped them in their own fight against alcoholism.