Together for Short Lives

Design Culture was commissioned to build a website that would meet the charity’s vital objectives: to provide a supportive space for families and professionals, and to drive an increase in donations and fundraising revenue. To fulfil these requirements, we developed the website with stakeholder involvement, starting with an online survey and card-sorting exercise – activities that greatly informed the final website structure and user journeys.

Every key user journey is built to point families towards support, surface the charity’s impact through the Changing Lives section, and drive donations with powerful calls to action on every page.

An evolving partnership

Launch was the beginning rather than the end. Since going live we’ve continued to work closely with Together for Short Lives, developing and refining the site as the charity’s needs have grown. That ongoing work has centred on refining and optimsing donation journeys, expanding the ways families find support, and making it easier for people to get involved with fundraising.

Optimising the donation experience

With donations central to the charity’s income, we carried out a sustained programme of work to refine and optimise the giving experience across both the single donation and regular giving journeys. We streamlined the forms – removing unnecessary steps and questions – and introduced smart conditional fields that adapt to each donor, so someone giving in memory of a loved one, paying in money from a fundraising event, or donating on behalf of an organisation is only ever asked what’s relevant to them. Regular givers now receive confirmation messaging and emails tailored to Direct Debit, setting out clear next steps rather than generic thank-you text.

Behind the scenes, richer and cleaner data flows directly into the charity’s Access Charity CRM, while analytics events track key moments in the funnel, giving the team clear visibility of where donors progress and where they drop off. We also strengthened the donation forms against fraudulent card-testing activity, protecting both the charity and its supporters.

A stronger Get Support section

Families and professionals often come to the site at difficult, high-pressure moments, needing specific information quickly. We’ve continued to develop the Get Support section into a genuine support hub with user journeys driven by a reassuringly simple question – ‘Are you looking for…?’. Rather than expecting visitors to understand how the site is structured, it routes them straight into clear, plain-language pathways based on their situation: emotional and listening support, practical and financial help, connecting with other families, or information about their child’s care. Its design prioritises mobile users, so the experience is at its best for families reaching for support on a phone, and enhanced with fast, relevant on-site search (powered by Algolia Search) so people  find the right help the moment they need it – rather than hunting through the site.

Refreshed Challenge Events

To help drive fundraising sign-ups, we redesigned the Challenge Events listing and individual event pages. Supporters can now filter events by type – run, trek, cycle, swim, adrenaline or obstacle race – using prominent, on-brand filter buttons that work well across desktop and mobile, with date, location and fees given far greater prominence. We also gave the charity more control in the CMS: featured events can be switched on or off, individual events can be pushed up the listing, and booking buttons can be labelled to suit each event (‘Book a place’, ‘Register’, ‘Sign up’). The result is a cleaner, more consistent experience that makes it easier for supporters to browse events and book a place.

AI-powered Algolia search and filtering, helping users find answers faster

We integrated Algolia to power fast, typo-tolerant search across the whole site, returning relevant results as users type. Having improved global search, we’ve gone on to extend Algolia into the Get Support section to help families quickly locate the resources most relevant to them – so families spend less time searching, and more time getting the support they need.

Flexible campaign landing pages to empower the team

We’ve also given the team the ability to build and activate campaign landing pages quickly and independently. Designed with a range of flexible, modular components – donation forms, video, petition sign-ups and more – that can be mixed and matched to suit the nature of each campaign, letting the charity respond to opportunities and get compelling, purpose-built pages live without developer involvement.