More than 25,000 people in the UK live with inherited retinal conditions, the most common cause of blindness in working-age people in the UK.
Thankfully Retina UK does amazing work to practically and emotionally support people affected by inherited sight loss, whilst also investing in medical research for future treatments, to help make their challenges a thing of the past.
Retina UK approached us to help with its goal of developing a future-proof online presence. An overarching goal for their digital development was to create efficiencies internally by removing manual processes included in their previous website. These accessibility issues meant that the organisation had difficulty in converting user visits to donations, or else sign-ups for mailing lists and community support groups.
By focusing on the user experience, Retina UK aimed for greater accessibility to better engage with users affected by inherited sight loss. The new website would need to showcase the impact of the world-class research and advances in treatment that the charity supports, whilst attracting new donors and encouraging supporters to further progress their relationship.
Creating dynamic landing pages helped to display the people at the heart of Retina UK’s work. Bold hero component images included within the outline of an eye highlight the focus of the website as friendly and approachable support for those with inherited sight loss. Likewise, resources on the site were made more readable to those with sight difficulties regardless of mobile and desktop access, where previously they did not display well across all devices.
Through a combination of information architecture workshops with internal stakeholders, and external site visit surveys which informed our data collection, it became apparent that whilst engagement rates for subject matter and condition were reasonably good, those for donation or mailing list pages were lower. This meant users’ journeys on the site ended prematurely and did not result in a long-term relationship with Retina UK.
A sleeker experience came through optimising the layout of resources on conditions as part of the journey of users throughout the site, with users then directed to clear and accessible signposts to subscription and donate actions as a result.
Previously donations were processed manually and therefore users experienced a delay. Through integrating this process on the new site, the donation experience is sleek and engaging, with bold images highlighting the causes their donations help fund – from helpline support to further treatment.
A key deliverable was including content on the site itself because previously information was displayed on external PDF publications. By showcasing resources in this way, time-poor users could access content quickly. Additionally, more traffic was directed to the site, because search engines were able to index the page – not just the PDF, so the SEO of the entire website improved.
With a reimagined digital space, visitors go on an accessible and sleek journey throughout the site. By integrating processes onto the website it means that Retina UK can focus more time on giving their community the individual attention that they deserve.
An intuitive and bold new site puts the focus on those supported, and increased accessibility and ease lead to successful engagement, meaning that visitors continue their relationship with Retina UK.
Speak to us about your project, get a quote
Or give us a call on +44 (0)1234 988 788
