 Epilepsy Action – youth websites
Background
Epilepsy Action is the largest member-led epilepsy organisation in the UK. Committed to supporting the needs of people with epilepsy, they work with individuals, families, carers and professionals to increase awareness and understanding of the condition.
For 5-12 year olds: http://kids.epilepsy.org.uk
For 13-25 year olds: http://youngpeople.epilepsy.org.uk
As part of their support to children and teenagers, they wanted to update their website presence for these two groups, either as part of the main site (run on Drupal CMS) or as microsites.
Brief
They wanted a well structured, engaging and (where possible) interactive site to serve each group with appropriate information. Much of the existing content while relevant, was presented in an attractive manner. They were also keen to add new content to engage children and young people from diverse backgrounds, of all ages.
Response
We produced initial wireframes, names and design ideas in response to Epilepsy Action’s well defined brief, adjusted in line with our experience and current Google analytics reports. We then conducted an online survey, promoted by Epilepsy Action’s ever-growing Facebook presence and also did telephone interviews with parents and young people.
The conclusion was that medical information is well catered for - the medical profession provides information at the point of diagnosis and many consultants and nurses refer patients to the Epilepsy Action websites as a reliable source of information. What was very much needed was emotional support and the active promotion of understanding among siblings and friends.
The social impact of epilepsy was also key to young people, whereas parents wanted visual communication of information on the children’s site. Much of the language around epilepsy was identified as confusing – they wanted complex things explained in laymans’ terms. We then refined the wireframes based on the above information.
Two microsites were then developed, utilising the same content management system so that information relevant to both age groups could be uploaded in one single, easy editing session.
Our focus was to create a sense of peer support and community across the country for the one in 250 young people in the UK with epilepsy. By putting this centre stage, the site will evolve as a young people contribute to its content, including:
- Help and advice
- Images of life with epilepsy
- Q&A
- EventsMoviesDiscussions
There is also a supplementary ‘Parents’ section which will continue to evolve as concerned parents ask questions - http://ypk.epilepsy.org.uk/parents/
What the client said
"I've got nothing but praise for the work that hey moscow put into our new children and young people's websites. We chose them because of their experience and expertise in producing content for kids and are extremely pleased with the sites they designed and produced for us.
"The team were professional, imaginative, thorough and very easy to work with. They work very well with clients and with stakeholders - even though they have lots of experience, they're eager to learn from them. For our project, they did interviews with parents and children in order to find out what our users wanted. Stakeholder involvement is a major part of their ethos.
"I look forward to future opportunities to work with them again."
Mark Morton, Digital Media Manager, Epilepsy Action
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