Weston Park Cancer Charity Development.
Cancer rates are on the rise and there are more people in the UK living with the disease than ever. But, there is some good news, better treatment and improved understanding of the disease means that survival rates are also increasing. To support Weston Park Cancer Charity in their commitment to improving cancer treatments and care for patients, we successfully completed a full redesign and build of their website which better reflects their brand and supports their overall objective.
- Client
- Weston Park Cancer Charity
- Who they are
- Weston Park Cancer Charity is a renowned and much loved, local, cancer charity.
- What they do
- They provide services, advice, therapies, and support for people living with and beyond cancer, as well as funding pioneering research and clinical trials.
- Location
- Sheffield
- Requirements
- Build a fully comprehensive redesigned website to better support Weston Park Cancer Charity’s goals of supporting people with cancer and beyond.
Problem
Weston Park Cancer Charity’s support service had been heavily reliant on people physically travelling to their centre for support. To support people further, they wanted to increase their online reach, provide accessible advice online, and build a clear content strategy for their site. As Weston Park Cancer Charity aims to grow as an organisation, with plans to increase its support services across the region, the site also needed to be built with future requirements in mind.
Result
We successfully redesigned and built a modern website that can be easily updated, saving staff time and providing service users with all of the information they need. The fundraising functionality has also been significantly improved, evident in Weston Park Cancer Charity’s latest Christmas star appeal breaking all of their previous records, with their online donations almost doubling.
“The site looks absolutely wonderful and I know just how much work it takes to create something so engaging, informative and easy to navigate. I have felt very proud reviewing each page before launch, I hope all of the Hive Team feel equally proud of all you have accomplished.”Emma Clarke, CEO of Weston Park Cancer Charity
Discovery
We started the project with an initial discovery phase to better understand and explore Weston Park Cancer Charity’s users and their requirements.
Using online workshops, user testing and journey mapping we discovered; Weston Park Cancer Charity’s internal structure and stakeholders, the needs of different areas within the charity, the systems and technologies used, their current content and their plans moving forward.
Stakeholders and representatives from all areas of the organisation were involved in the discovery process, ensuring decisions were made collaboratively and with a full understanding of everyone’s needs.
We also gained a deeper understanding of WPCC’s users, learning about their experiences, journeys, needs and the current support provided to WPCC’s service users, fundraisers and donors.
We also spoke to internal users such as website administrators, as well as finance and service providers.
Design
To define what content would go on the new site and how it should be grouped, we held workshops with all of the relevant stakeholders and conducted online card sorting with users.
Furthermore, we conducted co-creating and sketching workshops to help us define; the page structures, what features and components to use, and what navigation approaches to use to support all areas of the organisation.
We researched to identify the most effective content management and fundraising options based on the identified needs, structure, and layout required by Weston Park Cancer Charity and its users. This resulted in us providing a comprehensive feature and technical comparison report containing our headline recommendations.
Understanding Weston Park Cancer Charity and its user’s needs remained vitally important throughout the project and we wanted to ensure the design reflected such needs. Collectively, this work allowed us to apply Weston Park Cancer Charity’s brand layout to the prototype from the start.
Implementation
We chose to create the website using Sanity, a headless CMS, selected for its ability to provide a simple editing experience while supporting the complex, cross-referencing that supports the site structure.
The front end was created in the Next.js framework and we selected Raisely.com for their fundraising platform. As well as being simple to use for donors and fundraisers, Raisely’s ability to connect with or replace some of Weston Park Cancer Charity’s processes and systems can save dozens of hours of admin time each month.
Technology
We used the following tools and technology to redevelop the website:
- React, Next.js - Frontend
- Sanity - Headless CMS and Content API
- TypeScript - Languages
- Vercel - Hosting
- GitLab CI - CI/CD pipeline
You can learn more about the benefits of us using Sanity here:
the finished product
In November 2021, the first phase of Weston Park Cancer Charity’s redesigned website went live in preparation for the busy Christmas period. We’ve now delivered additional features to enhance the website such as a dedicated events space, staff profiles and implementing the final pieces of the original designs to support users journeys to the relevant information. We look forwards to continuing to iterate and improve the website through ongoing feedback and user testing.
Throughout this project, we have really enjoyed working with everyone at Weston Park Cancer Charity and their users. We know their work helps so many people in Sheffield and beyond and we are so grateful for the work that they do. Since the site went live, we have been really pleased with the success of the online donations and events. We were also honoured to be invited to attend the Weston Park Cancer Charity Gala Ball where over £73,000 was raised for the charity.
We feel privileged to work with a charity that makes such a difference to people’s lives and we will be continuing to support and improve their website in an ongoing relationship.
