The Mental Health Foundation campaigns for a mentally healthy society for all. The charity is the home of Mental Health Awareness Week and uses community programmes, research, public engagement, and advocacy to reach their goals.
The Objective
To create an audience-led, content-first platform to ensure the Mental Health Foundation is the leading digital destination for mental health
A three-fold challenge
The Mental Health Foundation approached Catch because their Drupal 7 content management system was reaching end-of-life. It was the ideal opportunity to refresh the digital platform’s look, navigation and back-end capabilities.
Our discovery sessions revealed three requirements for the new platform:
- To meet the needs of MHF’s different stakeholders
- Separate sub-sites for England, Scotland and Wales
- Ability to choose fundraising and retail payment providers to futureproof the platform
Hearing everyone’s voice
The Mental Health Foundation is a multifaceted charity, so our discovery phase gathered the opinions of multiple stakeholders. These included the head of digital, fundraising, comms teams, young leaders’ network and more. Each workshop involved up to twenty people, and Catch worked to ensure that all voices were equally heard through carefully planned exercises and roundtables. We also catered for all levels of digital expertise using explanatory sessions where necessary.
A seamless multi-nation experience
The Mental Health Foundation has two types of content. The first is nation-specific, tailored to the needs of England, Scotland or Wales. The second is applicable to all nations.
Our challenge was to create a structure that feeds generic content (from the UK parent site) to ‘fill the gaps’ on the nation sub-sites. The goal was a seamless user experience, so a Welsh visitor, for example, would not be sent to the UK site to access generic information.
To do this, Catch extended Drupal’s multi-lingual capabilities to fit the Mental Health Foundation’s needs through customisation that allowed content to be siloed or shared between nations as appropriate.
Flexible eCommerce
The Mental Health Foundation’s platform raises money through donations and a small retail offer, including pin badges and ribbons. Payments for each are processed separately and the architecture does not allow for cross-pollination of the two. This means the charity loses out on fundraising opportunities, for example, to prompt someone donating the proceeds of a charity event to buy pin badges.
After due diligence on different digital commerce options, Catch recommended Shopify as the eCommerce platform for the new website build. Shopify provides the Mental Health Foundation with the flexibility to go with the payment provider of their choice in the future without any additional fees per transaction.
Audience definition and experience
Our workshops identified that the Mental Health Foundation has three principal audiences. Over a series of workshops, we created an information architecture that addressed the needs of each. For example, we ensured a ‘Get help’ button for vulnerable site visitors was prominent at the top of each page.
Audiences and their goals
- General Public: Help and information regarding mental health
- Policymakers: The latest research and MHF programmes
- Supporters: Ways to donate to or support the charity
A safe space where everyone is welcome
We created a visual design that reflected the charity’s role as a safe space for anyone impacted by mental health issues. Design elements included soft corner curves, welcoming illustrations and a relaxing palette of complementary teal and pink.
As a charity, The Mental Health Foundation must ensure that any investment in new technology is future-proofed. Catch created a digital platform that not only shares their important services with critical audiences but gives them the flexibility to adapt to their future needs.
Related news and work
Save Our Wild Isles - our campaign with WWF, RSPB and the National Trust
A campaign platform to educate, excite and create a sense of wonder for the millions inspired by Sir David Attenborough’s Wild Isles BBC documentary series.
The biggest TV platform in the UK
A website for the UK’s biggest television platform, used daily by almost 18 million households
Transforming Content Management for a Small Team
Creating an exceptional buying journey for those interested in Salford Professional Development’s (SPD) courses, conferences and in-house training