Working within the NHS brand identity guidelines, illumanize were asked to develop a new website for cancer patients in the Harrogate area. We continue to manage the website, working with the service team to maintain the treatment and support information and update the community with news and events.
When people receive a cancer diagnosis it can be a devastating experience. It’s a lot to take in, and the complexity of information about cancer treatments and support can be overwhelming, particularly at early consultations. Patients need a single point of focus: where to go, what to expect, what treatments are available, and what other services are available for financial help, complementary therapies, dietary advice or psychological support.
All of this information needs to be accessible to people with a wide range of needs, while providing reassurance that it stems from an up-to-date, reliable, authoritative source.
The management team at Harrogate & District Cancer Services were keen to create a targeted website, distinct from the Cancer Services pages on the Harrogate & District Foundation Trust website. They wanted to extend the reach of helpful guidance, improve the range of information available, and enable staff to easily manage content in the future.
The target audience comprised three distinct groups: patients, their families and carers, and healthcare professionals. Patients are likely to be overwhelmed with information at their initial cancer diagnosis and a well-designed website would enable them to access the relevant information in a timely and convenient manner. Similarly, family members and carers of a cancer patient would be able to independently learn more about a diagnosis and subsequent treatment, enabling them to better support the cancer patient. For healthcare professionals (including GPs), easy access to the range of available support services would facilitate signposting for patients.
Concise, jargon-free language would be appropriate for all the target audience groups and a key factor in the success of a new website was to educate and empower patients to become equal partners in their care, using the available resources to develop their understanding of their illness, treatment and general health. The website would also provide access to research studies, enabling patients to learn about clinical trials and alternative treatments which may be appropriate.
Engaging with patients throughout their cancer journey, and offering a wide range of health and wellbeing services would promote a healthier lifestyle and allow rapid intervention should symptoms reoccur.
All this would need to be achieved within the strict NHS brand identity guidelines to provide reassurance.
Firstly, we worked on the identity, creating a new logo for the service based on the standard NHS format – easy! Then we selected appropriate colours from the NHS palette to represent three main categories of information: Visiting & appointments, Treatment & care and Health & wellbeing and created a simple graphic representing a patient’s cancer journey to help identify the service.
We then set to work designing a structure for the website based on our three main sections, colour coding these areas to help visitors understand their location within the site.
A standard page structure was designed, with an extra wide side panel to incorporate additional information on any given topic, which might include contact details, further reading and “meet the team” photos. We used a consistent location of alert boxes to highlight important facts like emergency phone numbers.
We created carousels so visitors can quickly browse support services within a page, to reduce page clicks and avoid confusing navigation. And we used accordion displays to breakdown complex information so visitors wouldn’t be overwhelmed and would be able to find relevant points easily.
Accessibility was vital, so alongside accessible design we used icons to help convey content themes and signposted assistance with communication – hearing loops, translation services, sign language and advocacy, and videos were used to convey complex concepts and avoid lengthy written explanations.
We wanted to create a sense of community and an understanding of the hospital environment, so included staff photos and a guide to uniforms.
Yes! It took around fours months to complete the project. Our content manager Clare was keen to keep the workload minimal for the busy Cancer Services team and spent some time embedded in the staff office, working around their hectic schedules to gather resources. On several occasions creative director Pete set up a photography area at the hospital and was able to catch doctors and nurses when they could spare a couple of minutes between patients.
Back at the illumanize office Pete structured the pages and navigation on a test server to while Clare compiled the content and liaised with the NHS team who were able to check progress and sign-off completed sections at regular intervals. Our team might be small, but we achieve big results by staying close to the action!
illumanize were given the brief to develop an information and support website for an NHS Trust cancer service. It needed to be inviting, informative and user friendly whilst adhering to strict NHS guidelines. Clare and Pete brought not just their skill and expertise to the project, but also a truly collaborative approach which created a real sense of compassion and understanding to the final design.
It’s been great to work with a professional organisation who have listened to what our requirements are and helped guide us with their expertise. We are really pleased with the final product and continue to work with the team on an ongoing basis to keep vital information up to date. It feels like a real partnership.
We love launching websites! It’s the culmination of everyone’s hard work and the opportunity to tie up all the loose ends. After extensive testing, organising a new NHS domain (harrogatecancerservices.nhs.uk) and connecting all the technical stuff it was time to find an audience. We quickly established the site with search engines and made sure the pages were indexed correctly.
Since then we have seen the audience increase month on month, mostly via search but partly through promotion within the Harrogate & District NHS Trust, with the distribution at key moments in the diagnostic pathway, of leaflets and posters designed and printed by illumanize.
We continue to optimise and maintain the website, generating regular news features and service alerts and were subsequently asked to move on to a new website project, for the pioneering Active Against Cancer service.
