.svg){kind=icon}
The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust (The EPT) aims to provide information, support and education to those experiencing early pregnancy loss through ectopic pregnancy.
Their website was already performing well for on-site visitors, searches and SEO ranking, but it was old and hadn’t been updated for quite a number of years. Aside from traffic generation and load speed, the one vital performance element of a support site like this is the ease at which visitors can find what they need. So they required a redesign, and we’re happy to say they chose us for the job!
Support at the forefront
The vast majority of our focus was on the beneficiaries of the charity’s services; this meant that vital information about ectopic pregnancy and The EPT’s support services needed to be at the forefront of the site. Also important were sections on how people could go on to support the charity itself eg through fundraising and donating. Visitors could also find the important work of the charity in informing and supporting healthcare professionals on ectopic pregnancy. How a website can advise and support people during a very traumatic experience is at the forefront of our job.
User research
User research was therefore essential in rebuilding the platform. The EPT connected us with their volunteers and Facebook group members, most of whom had experienced an ectopic pregnancy. Alexa received specialist training in interviewing people about difficult and traumatic experiences, before leading a series of online interviews across different user groups.
These equipped us with the necessary understanding to make this website work its hardest.
Information architecture
Simple, empathetic design (not too busy), searchable, digestible information architecture. With content that reflected the mindset of visitors at the time of experience. Questions, questions, questions.
We made the fantastic community forum more prominent and reorganised the content, before adding new pieces, reshaping the layout, and adding anchored text links to allow quick access to the correct information. In addition, to ensure no question was left unanswered and visitors could consistently and efficiently report feedback or request further support, we added a floating ‘get help’ action button accessible from any part of the website.
On the flip side – never ignore an important stakeholder like the actual client team itself, ease of content management system design was a must!
Web admin beauty
Our developing unique content management platform, based on WordPress but customised to be the most usable component page builder we could make, is a true thing of web admin beauty. Happy clappy hands from the EPT web admin team were experienced during training, and the client even shared a “my CMS is better than your CMS” story a few weeks after go-live.
With the redesign complete, we felt confident that any new visitor would receive the comprehensive support they needed, know what steps to take next, and feel comforted by the community element throughout the process.
"When we had our first conversation with Bravand, there was already another web developer that we had been speaking to. Bravand's approach - putting our users first and really taking the time to understand them - gave us complete confidence that they were the right choice."
Munira Oza, Executive Director, The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust
Talent in Action: Alexa Sielaff
This project also highlights the impact of emerging talent through Bravand's Fresh Meet programme.
The EPT project asked something of Alexa that most experienced practitioners would find demanding: conducting in-depth interviews with people who had experienced ectopic pregnancy - a traumatic, often devastating event - and translating what she heard into a design that could genuinely support them in their most vulnerable moments.
She led on user research from the ground up. Starting with empathy maps and a structured research approach scoped alongside the Bravand team, Alexa developed the interview scripts, completed specialist training in interviewing people about difficult experiences, and ran multiple rounds of user interviews across different audience groups - primary users, partners, fundraisers and healthcare professionals. She then synthesised those findings into a formal research report, refined the empathy maps, built user profiles, created a sitemap and user flows, and produced the clickable prototype used to test the new design with real users.
The feedback was unanimous: people understood it, found it useful, and said they would have used it at the time they needed it most. That outcome didn't happen by accident - it was built on the quality of the research that preceded it.
Alexa is now a full-time UX Designer at Bravand. The EPT project is where that career began.
Got a digital challenge that needs to work for people at their most vulnerable?
We'll solve it properly - and create meaningful, paid opportunities for young people in the process. Get in touch with the Bravand team.
