Meningitis Research Foundation - website

Summary

The agency was appointed by the MRF to redesign its website, improve usability, enhance the call to action relating to donations and implement a concept which would distinguish the Foundation’s website apart from its competitors. The results of the work include:

• The creation of the online ‘Book of Experience’ details individuals’ stories of their personal experiences of meningitis. This is a very powerful resource clearly displaying the devastation these diseases have caused, along with extraordinary stories of courage and hope. The stories are built into a lightweight flash application, allowing users to filter stories applicable to them
• The development of a blog which engages users on topics relating to meningitis and MRF. Social media including twitter and Facebook allows MRF to promote these areas and drive more traffic to the site
• The average time spent on site went up by 111% and the number of page views increased by 85%. Visitors now spend more time on the site, click through more pages and interact with it more extensively.
• Navigation has improved massively throughout the site, with at least 42% of visitors engaging with more than two pages.
• An increase in online donations by 450%

Objectives

The following objectives were set for the website:

• Inform and engage target audiences and stakeholders
• Increase traffic and reduce the bounce rate
• Improve website usability and navigation

Strategy implementation

• The agency developed a concept around the creation of an online ‘Book of Experience’ featuring the faces of the people behind the stories
• The faces are head and shoulder shots of real people - sufferers, their families, celebrities etc - which give each story an injection of life, reality and a ‘face’
• The strategy behind the architecture was to strategically arrange each story around the website to draw users into the stories featured in the Book of Experience
• A more simple donations form was designed, which has made the prospect of completing the form much less daunting for a user
• Ways of engaging users were introduced to the site and include a blog, ‘submit your story’ to allow users to be involved in the Book of Experience and a research map tool allowing users to search for meningitis research

Results

• The average time spent on site went up by 111% and the number of page views increased by 85%. Visitors now spend more time on the site, click through more pages and interacting with it more extensively.
• Navigation has improved massively throughout the site, with at least 42% of visitors engaging with more than a couple of pages.
• Donations are showing a significant increase at the moment and have risen from £150 in May 2009 to £824.72 in June 2009 – an increase of 450%

Client testimonial

Harpinder Collacot, head of communications & campaigns, MRF: “The agency has been instrumental in assisting us in taking our rather sterile website and e-communications and humanising to ensure greater engagement with both the public and health professionals, which has resulted in a much more dynamic user experience.

Our members have responded very positively to the new website, engaging with it to provide their own stories, as well as accessing our material. The site is now an incredible resource for patient experience and has been commended by other organisations in the patient association field. We look forward to being able to gather detailed data on our users and understand their needs better. The agency has developed a powerful resource, of which we are very proud.”