Bristol Drugs Project (BDP) is a Bristol based charity providing harm reduction and treatment services to people experiencing problems with drugs or alcohol. They strive to provide an inclusive service to the people of Bristol and have a proud legacy of 35 years in the city.
Accessibility first website design for Bristol Drug Project.
How we helped
Defining a clear website structure
As often happens, websites grow with content over time and, if not carefully managed, it becomes harder for users to find what they want. This was one of the key challenges for BDP as their existing site had become bloated, difficult to navigate and disorganised. Not to mention slow!
To solve this UX challenge, we engaged in a strategic review of the site content and sitemap which identified three key user journeys and intents; ‘Get Support’, ‘Get Information’ and ‘Get Involved’. This approach, along with a fresh new design made BDP feel fresh, relevant and as innovative as the service they provide.
Accessibility first design principles
Accessibility is important on any website, but even more so for Bristol Drugs Project. As a charitable organisation, there were specific accessibility standards and rules that had to be met and a metric of success was a ‘AA’ rating against the Web Consortium Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
To meet the required standards we worked closely with their internal brand designer to ensure that accessibility was catered for on and offline. We also ensured used tools like Wave and Axe to ensure that the site would work without fault using text-to-speech software.
Result
The fresh new design and accessible first design provides a coherent and reliable experience for BDP users and stakeholders. It is also far simpler for the team to manage, having moved from an outdated Umbraco CMS to the latest WordPress CMS with modular editing functionality.