Swansea Women's Aid: a research-led redesign
A full website redesign for a local domestic abuse charity, built around three different audiences with very different needs, and very different amounts of time to find what they're looking for.
The brief
Swansea Women's Aid needed a site that worked harder for three audiences at once: women seeking help, often in a moment of crisis; donors and funders; and people looking to volunteer. Staff also needed to be able to post news and updates themselves, without relying on a developer.
The research
I ran a stakeholder interview with the charity's team to understand their goals, then carried out user research (including interviews I commissioned through an external research partner) to understand real barriers. I also benchmarked the experience against Refuge's national site to see how a well-resourced organisation in the same space structured crisis messaging and support pathways.
The redesign
Navigation was rebuilt around the three priority audiences, with crisis support first. A visible "quick exit" safety feature was made prominent rather than buried, and a plain-language section on recognising abuse was added to reduce confusion. Staff login moved to the footer to keep the main site focused on visitors, sitting on top of a lightweight CMS so the team could publish news and events without developer help.
The outcome
The research and redesign fed directly into the charity's production site, live today at swanseawomensaid.com, structured around what someone actually needs in the moment they land on it: support first, then ways to give or get involved.
Key research findings that shaped the design
- Many women weren't sure whether what they were experiencing qualified as domestic abuse, or what services were available to them.
- The existing site's content was hard to navigate and lacked a clear structure for different visitors.
- Staff had no easy way to update news, services or events without developer support.