Website Design, Web UX Design, Web Development, Craft CMS, Hosting & Support, Design & Branding
People First are an independent customer-led organisation that has worked in the North of England for over 30 years. They are the largest advocacy service provider in Cumbria, supporting thousands of people every year to have their voices heard and help them live their best lives. Fully integrated within the community, they have a deep understanding of the region and the unique challenges many individuals face.
They approached us to design and build a new website that is accessible, functional, and designed with the user experience in mind.
Our brief was to develop a high-performance website, which met the needs of a variety of user groups. The website needed to be designed and developed with the end user in mind, ensuring the content is easily accessible and functional for the charity's needs. This included a data driven search feature and functional referral form.
As People First is a charity, it is important to prioritise usability and accessibility for their website. This is especially important because the site needs to cater to a diverse audience. Ensuring the site meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards means that users with a wide range of disabilities can access the website effectively, utilising assistive technologies such as text-to-speech software and speech recognition software. Additionally, it ensures that all website functionalities are available and easily navigable using only a keyboard.
UX Research
We undertook in depth UX research to identify what had been working well with their current website and any pain points that needed addressed. We worked closely with the client to advise and gain real insight into the goals and needs of the business, from both the client and users’ perspective. Our research was both qualitative and quantitative, researching their user journeys and analytics from their existing website data and through conversations with the client.
Focus Groups
We ran workshops with the client, including stakeholders, team members, and end users, to discuss the needs for the site and identify the different target user demographics for each of the organisation's services. Through these sessions, we developed multiple user personas, that were used to guide our decision-making process through the design and build of the website.
Design
People First had an existing brand identity that was very bold, with strong images and icons. We adapted the brand for the website, pulling out any colours that had previously been unused, to create a more vibrant and bold appearance. We used the icons to help create a uniform flow that also helped with the user journey, making it simple and easy to follow.
We worked closely with People First as we applied the designs to the wire frames, fleshing out the site’s appearance and functionality.
Development
We developed a bespoke website, created with custom coding, optimised for site speed and performance. The site was built on Craft CMS, an incredibly user-friendly CMS, that boasts flexibility and easy maintenance of the site from the client's perspective. This will ensure easy maintenance of the site, as it continues to grow with the People First’s needs.
We built a custom referral form to ensure the website met the needs of the end users, allowing them to request a referral quickly and efficiently. The form uses conditional logic questioning, meaning it is dynamic, and the questions change depending on the user input.
We also developed a bespoke search function to help users find information easily. Even if the end user does not know the correct term they need to find the relevant content, the search function stores the search data so it can be continually updated to improve its functionality.
Throughout the development and launch of the website, our web development team regularly tested the sites performance and accessibility standards, implementing changes where needed to achieve high performance ratings.
The result was a fully accessible website that is still visually exciting an appealing. The site meets the needs of both the client and the end user, built on Craft CMS, ensuring flexibility and ease of updating and managing the website content. We also provided extra support in the form of web and accessibility training sessions with team members following the website launch.
Overall, the outcome of the project was a successful collaboration between our team and People First, resulting in a website that is both accessible and functional, putting the thousands of people who the charity supports every year at the centre of the project.
Got a project in mind? Contact us today and our team will devise the best strategy for your needs, whether it's UX website design, branding or hosting and support.
