The Client
The Chilterns MS Centre, founded in 1985, is a Buckinghamshire-based charity. With a purpose-built premise and dedicated team of employees and volunteers, the organisation aims to empower individuals who have been diagnosed with MS to manage their symptoms better. They achieve this goal by providing physical, practical, and emotional support, which extends to families and carers.
Project Brief
The Chilterns MS Centre had clearly given considerable thought to the development of a new website. They had produced a detailed brief for the tendering process. The brief identified a number of technical requirements and the need for the completed site to be easily accessible to people with MS.
Before we prepared a proposal, we had an initial meeting to gather a clearer understanding of the functionality and the specific requirements for a good user experience. The meeting provided the opportunity to discuss some potential solutions. We were then able to prepare a proposal that directly addressed the priorities of the brief.
The Chiltern MS Centre website presented four main challenges:
- The facility to collect donations online. There needed to be a number of options, including pre-defined amounts, one-off or regular donations and donations for a specific reason.
- The facility to promote events, receive bookings and take payments online. To further reduce administration, it was important that the system was automated to issue tickets and that additional information, such as dietary requirements could be collected as part of the process.
- Integration with an existing eTapestry CRM system
- User Experience Design (UX) and testing
Whilst functionality was a priority, it was also important to develop a website that was personal to the centre and had strong visual appeal.
“As a local charity we wanted to work with a local company on this project and Framework Digital fitted the bill. We especially liked the fact that they would engage with our members to test the website using local students which was a real win-win”
– Gemma Hill, Communications Officer, Chilterns MS Centre
Our Solution
Collaboration was essential for this project. Framework Digital prepared a plan, which identified clear milestones. This supported project management and kept all parties informed about timescales and progress. We maintained regular communication and came together for several meetings to review the features and design.
To ensure that all the requirements could be met, Framework Digital custom-made a system for receiving donations and an event booking system. To further enhance efficiency, we also provided the MS Centre with a mobile app, which can scan tickets and record attendance.
Having researched the etapestry CRM, we were able to integrate this third-party software into the new website.
To ensure a positive UX, Chilterns MS Centre asked for members who would be willing to test the website during development. We worked with IT students from Aylesbury College who organised the testing session. The volunteers were set up on computers and tablets and navigated around the site. Their feedback was collected and this informed alterations to the design. This was a great opportunity for the students to apply their learning about UX.
“One of the key factors in building a new site was to make it accessible for people with fine motor skill problems and visual impairments, as these are some of the symptoms that people with multiple sclerosis can be affected by. We had the new site tested by the very people that would be using it and we gave students real project experience in the process.”
– Gemma Hill, Communications Officer, Chilterns MS Centre
The Results
When the website design had been approved, we arranged a soft launch. As the site went live, the second round of testing by people with MS was undertaken. With their approval, promotion of the new website went ahead.
The outcome is a modern, user-friendly website, which improves administrative efficiency. It tells the story of real people receiving the support they need at the Chilterns MS Centre and we hope that it will help the team to promote their services and boost donations.
“Tomas was great to work with and very adaptable when small parts of the brief changed. He was also quick to suggest and implement changes which he knew would be beneficial to us and yet would still fit the budget. His support once the site went live was invaluable too.
As a result, we have a website that is much more user friendly, really shows visitors what the charity is all about, and most importantly can be accessed more easily than our previous website by our beneficiaries. We have had so many positive comments about it and we are now proud to direct people to the website.”
– Gemma Hill, Communications Officer, Chilterns MS Centre.
You can visit Chiltern MS by clicking the link below.
https://chilternsneurocentre.org/
