We approached every element of the redesign, with our Community members at the heart of every step while still talking to business objectives such as brand alignment.
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Company: Cancer Council NSW
Entry submitted by: Kate Fenerty, Amy Howard & Tina Nguyen (Community Manager, Lead Digital Designer & Developer and Digital Project Manager)
Community: Cancer Council Online Community
Lithy category: Digital Design Excellence
At Cancer Council NSW, we have a vision of a cancer-free future. There are things that we can all do every day to help make this happen.
The Cancer Council Online Community supports Cancer Council NSW’s overarching brand experience by providing a platform that allows anyone affected by cancer to connect, share experiences and to find information and support in a safe forum. It complements our other digital channels by being a space they can refer people to, providing evidence-based information, access to health professionals, resources and also, as a repository of stories which further leads to case studies and other related content.
Our point of difference with other online services of a similar nature, such as Facebook Groups or other Forums that focus on specific cancer types – e.g. breast cancer, head and neck cancers or prostate cancer – is that we provide a peer support platform for people affected by all types of cancer, moderated by professional staff and qualified health professionals.
We approached every element of the redesign, with our Community members at the heart of every step while still talking to business objectives such as brand alignment.
Before & After: Cancer Connections and the Cancer Council Online Community.
In designing and developing the Online Community, we actively engaged the existing members, and conducted extensive user research and usability testing throughout the entire process.
Informative
We endeavoured to inform visitors to the site, what it was about, right from their very first visit. The header was constructed in a way so as to show the forum categories and blogs, whilst allowing them to be accessible via drop-down menus.
We also included on the homepage, a large area with an image of 3 figures connected as well as the words “A supportive online community for people affected by cancer”.
This area in tandem with the header, immediately informs any visitor to the site that we are a community for people affected by cancer and through the forum categories, that anyone is welcome, regardless of their relationship with cancer.
Cancer Council Online Community homepage.
Bespoke pathways
When people visit the site’s home page, they are immediately presented with bespoke forum pathways structured for the three key community audiences:
These pathways enable the user to choose their own journey, whether it is via the dropdowns at the top of the homepage or further down where the forums are laid out with images that people can identify with. These are also images of real Community members, whom have worked with us on case studies and awareness campaigns for the Online Community across our social channels.
Language
The impact of language, when someone is in distress or desperately seeking information relating to cancer, can be enormous. Great care has been taken with everything from the names of categories and forums, to the descriptions and imagery used throughout the site.
We conducted extensive research, within the community and internally, to discover the best areas of focus for the forums, and every minute piece of content has been pored over by multiple pairs of eyes to ensure the best possible experience from a copy standpoint for our Community members.
Hearts vs Kudos
Always shining a light on the members and why they are in this community, we replaced kudos with hearts. Giving a post a heart conveys messages such as empathy, compassion, ‘I’m with you’, ‘I hear you’, love, sensitivity, support and a myriad of other reactions. These are all feelings essential to feeling safe in a peer support space.
Describing kudos or anything similar was also not appropriate, considering there can be discussions and feelings about treatment, dying and loss.
Distress
Levels of anxiety and distress can be understandably heightened when you or your loved one has just been diagnosed with cancer or going through treatment etc. We acknowledge this with the presence of easy to find and use distress call to actions, on every page of the site. These will allow the member to talk with a health professional or contact a 24x7 crisis service as soon as they need to. All of which are click to call enabled, when device specific.
Cancer Council Online Community: Links to support & crisis services
Research: Phase
Staying true to our goal of a rebuilding the platform for our members. We began our extensive User Research program with the very people who been using the community, our core users.
We wanted to know the following:
We also unpacked the current site to understand behaviour such as:
The following design fundamentals were considered:
Lastly and unique to our community, we had to understand the Cancer Journeys, to build into our plan.
Design: Phase 1
During the first design stage we held regular collaboration sessions between key Teams such as Design, UX and Community Coordinators as well relevant subject matter experts; to build out the site design through the user journeys. We also worked closely with our internal Brand Team to make sure the design was within our Brand Guidelines and closely aligned with our mission and values.
We invited members of the online community as well as other volunteers to participate in the first out of three, User Testing Sessions on design wireframes. In these sessions, we gathered data on:
Design: Phase 2
Addressing the feedback from our first external user testing session, we made the appropriate design tweaks. Throughout, we worked closely with Lithium and their development agency on how that design would translated to build.
Once we had a working staging site, we held the second set of User Testing Sessions. These included:
Design: Phase 3
All further learnings from the User Testing sessions were addressed and designs were adapted; where appropriate. The site for launch was then built and set ready for go live.
During this process, we identified Community Champions and involved them throughout this journey. At this point, they were also invited to a special sneak-peek of the working platform and again encouraged them to provide their feedback.
Design: Phase 4 & Ongoing
We strongly listen to and are guided by, our Community, as well as continuing to optimise the platform, whether it is related to functionality or design.
How do we know it’s working?
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