The Action Group Case Study

The Action Group is a client of LoudLocal. This image shows a group of people at the Action Group's support centre sat round a table laughing whilst playing dominos.

The Action Group is a client of LoudLocal's. This image shows a lady smiling wearing a yellow jumper at one of the Action Group's support centres.

The Action Group is one of LoudLocal's clients. This image shows two people baking and spooning cake mix into cupcake cases, the are both wearing aprons and one has a pair of headphones on, they are doing this at one of the Action Group's support centres.

The Action Group is one of LoudLocal's clients. This image shows two women sat smiling in one of the Action Group's support centres.

The Brief

The Action Group founded in 1976 by a group of parents and carers of people with learning disabilities and other support needs. First set up in Leith and Restalrig, they began by campaigning for better local services for those in need. Over 45 years later, they now have expanded their team into Edinburgh and the surrounding areas, offering support and advice to over 2200 children, young people, and adults.

Before getting in touch with us, The Action Group were using quite an outdated website, with a design that didn’t appeal to their target audience. On top of that, their website developer would charge them a lot of money for even the simplest change. Being a charity, this wasn’t feasible for them, so they contacted us to help them take back control and redesign the website from scratch.

The Action Group came to us in February 2022 via the Wix Marketplace, to get help with an advanced website.

The Action Group received emails from other partners detailing a brief quote; however, they felt the personal approach from LoudLocal superseded these. We were the only Wix partner of the five to make the effort to call The Action Group and discuss their requirements in more detail. The fact that they were able to speak to us gave her the confidence that we can support her with this project within her budget. From the start, we built a strong rapport with The Action Group, and we were able to understand their requirements fully.

PHASE 1

Current Website Review

The first step of the project was reviewing the current website to get a better idea of what areas were working well and what needed improvement.

We noted how the content and design needed to be updated and how the structure could be improved to make it more user-friendly. Accessibility was an extremely important factor to keep in mind for this design, as people with learning difficulties will use the site.

A screenshot of the Action Group's website's home page before LoudLocal redesigned the site

PHASE 2

Improving Accessibility

We also implemented a tool called Recite Me, to improve the accessibility of the site. Recite Me gives users access to a screen reader and other helpful features. In addition, in our weekly meetings with the client, we reviewed each page individually and ensured everything was up to their standards. During these meetings we also listened to the client's ideas/feedback and collaborated with them on all aspects of the site.

A screenshot of the Accessible hub page on the action group's website showing the accessibility tools available on the website including Recite Me

The new website features a more colourful and welcoming design, with more relevant images and icons. The content is evenly spaced out and split into sections but compact enough to reduce the amount of scrolling needed. Furthermore, the current vacancies section has received a well-needed visual overhaul and the new dynamic content management system makes it easy to add new job postings. Accessibility has been improved across the site, with each page now optimised for screen readers and other tools.

Implementing the Recite Me plug-in has allowed users of all abilities to experience everything the site offers, including important advice and support. Moving forward, we also provided The Action Group with Wix training so that they are able to maintain the website and make changes in-house without the need for a developer.