The challenge
In November 2022, Family Fund appointed Mixd to design, build and manage a new website that would better reflect its strategic objectives and values. They needed to make a change for a number of reasons:
- The old site did not conform to the accessibility standards.
- The content management system was limited, with rigid and inflexible page templates.
- Navigation through the site was not intuitive.
Prototyping was the only way we could properly test the navigational structures and demonstrate to the senior leadership team how their existing content would fit. We built the prototype using InVision which allowed us to test functionality such as searching for grants. The design direction was informed by the research and the usability testing that we carried out throughout the project; the more we understand about users, the better we are able to meet their needs and design something that appeals to them beyond mere aesthetic appearance.
Expertise used
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User research and stakeholder engagement
User research helped us take the guesswork out of creating a great user experience.
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Content design strategy
Provided guidance on content, SEO and accessibility throughout the project.
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User experience design
We identified opportunities for improvement and validated designs with users.
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Front-end development
We provided accessible, responsive frontend code that adheres to WCAG standards.
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WordPress development
Our Mixd framework is built using WordPress, giving us the tools to build an accessible and engaging website.
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Accessibility audit and training
We conducted accessibility training to ensure the team at Family Fund had the tools they needed to continue creating accessible content.
Our approach
The project began with a series of design workshops to establish objectives, success criteria and target audiences. The primary goal was to reach a consensus on what we were trying to achieve and then generate ideas on how this could be done. Initial ideas were quickly visualised so that the team could assess their potential and likely development cost. This process helped Family Fund develop and strengthen their brand proposition based on research we had undertaken.
The project also included a comprehensive user research phase where we facilitated a series of stakeholder workshops, telephone interviews and informal user testing. Qualitative user research is the basis of user-centred design: giving our team access to real users from target audiences before the design process begins provides them with the information and ideas they need to develop their thinking and avoid designing-in problems. Alongside this research we also created a number of user personas which we continually referenced throughout the project. Following the research, our user experience (UX) team began work on the new information architecture for the site, creating desktop wireframes that led into design visuals.
Mixd are a very professional team, who are easy to work with and deliver on brief and on deadline. They helped us to achieve a website that is impactful, accessible, and really works for our audiences.
Chief Operating Officer, Family Fund
The results
Having designed, built and hosted other public sector services with similar accessibility requirements, Mixd was in a strong position to help Family Fund update and refresh their website. We streamlined publishing workflows with the new WordPress block editor which, due to the simplicity of the WordPress editing interface, has saved precious time when publishing new content. Hosting the site externally on the Mixd Managed Hosting platform has also eliminated time-consuming maintenance and security workstreams.
