Look Ahead

A faster, fresher and more user-friendly website avoiding the need for a complete rebuild

Look Ahead is a leading UK housing association and social care provider, supporting people with complex needs including mental health conditions, learning disabilities, homelessness and care experience. Over time, its WordPress website had grown organically, resulting in a complex structure, outdated design and inconsistent user experience that made it difficult for key audiences to find information.

Rather than rebuild from scratch, we revitalised the existing site through a strategic content, design and template overhaul. The goal was to create a modern, user-friendly and accessible WordPress website that better supports customers, partners and prospective employees – while strengthening compliance and creating a platform that could be easily managed, supported and extended over time.

Structure and navigation audit

We began with a comprehensive audit of the existing site, mapping every page, template and module to understand how it had evolved over time. The review revealed duplication, inconsistent hierarchy, an overcomplicated top navigation that no longer reflected the organisation’s priorities or primary audiences and a limited set of templates that wasn’t giving the Look Ahead team on-page flexibility to manage their content effectively.

We simplified and rationalised the structure, reducing the top-level navigation to clear, audience-led areas and prioritising pathways for residents and families, jobseekers, partners and supporters. This created a clearer, more intuitive information architecture aligned to real user needs rather than internal silos.

A new master template: flexibility without a rebuild

The cornerstone of the overhaul was a new, highly flexible master content template. Built using modular content blocks — including video, testimonials, impact statistics and calls-to-action — it enables rich, engaging page layouts without requiring bespoke design.

Rolled out across much of the site, the template allows pages to feel fresh and varied while maintaining consistency and accessibility. It gives the Look Ahead team far greater flexibility and control, delivering the impact of a new website within the existing platform.

Structural and visual refresh, and contemporary UX

Alongside structural improvements, we modernised the visual design and user experience while retaining the core Look Ahead brand. Updated typography, refined layouts and new graphic elements create a cleaner, more contemporary interface, supported by stronger use of photography, video and subtle micro-animations to enhance usability and engagement.

We also restructured page layouts to surface important content more clearly, replacing buried or collapsed sections with more accessible, scannable formats. The homepage and key landing pages now better highlight news, impact and calls-to-action, helping users quickly find relevant information.

Modernising the WordPress CMS and development foundation

Alongside the front-end overhaul, we modernised the underlying WordPress platform to create a more robust, scalable and maintainable CMS. We migrated the site to a Bedrock-based architecture to improve file structure, security and development workflow. We then restructured and refined the codebase to support the new modular templates and flexible content components.

This modern development approach ensures the website is easier to maintain, extend and support over time – providing Look Ahead with a future-proofed WordPress CMS aligned with current best practice.

Content consolidation, migration and functionality improvements

We carried out a comprehensive CMS clean-up and content consolidation following the new site structure. Pages were rationalised, redirects implemented to preserve SEO and user journeys, and key historic content — including recent news and updates — was successfully migrated and integrated into the new templates.

Existing forms were rebuilt and streamlined using Gravity Forms, improving usability, reliability and editorial control. We also implemented Algolia to deliver faster, more accurate on-site search, significantly enhancing the user experience while making content easier for internal teams to manage.

Efficient, collaborative delivery

The project was delivered in structured phases using an agile approach, allowing template development and content updates to progress in parallel to deliver on time  and on budget. Through close collaboration, we delivered a revitalised, future-proofed website on time and within budget — demonstrating how an existing WordPress platform can be successfully transformed without a full rebuild.