Accessible Multi-State Website

The situation

The organisation was doing serious, specialised work, and the website wasn't carrying it. The design was dated and it was hard to use on a phone. The two things a prospective client needs most, who are the therapists and how do I start, were buried where nobody could act on them.

For a counselling service that isn't a cosmetic problem. Someone deciding whether to reach out for help won't dig through three levels of navigation to find an intake form.

The constraints

• Accessibility was the starting point. Many of the people using the site depend on it being accessible. A site that is hard to use for them fails at the one job it has.
• A sensitive first step. People often look for counselling at a hard moment. Every extra click between landing and enquiring is a chance for them to give up.
• More than one state. US therapists can only see clients in states where they are licensed, so what the site says about where the service is available has to be right, state by state.
• The organisation's own voice. The rebuild had to sound like them, not like us.

What we did

We reviewed the whole site against the organisation's mission first, then rebuilt around what that review found. We didn't start from a visual refresh.

• Structure and mobile rebuilt. The path from landing to enquiry is short and obvious on a phone.
• Therapist profiles brought to the surface. Choosing the right counsellor is the decision, so it shouldn't require hunting.
• One intake form and a client feedback form. New client details arrive in one place, in the same format every time, instead of a back-and-forth email exchange.
• Accessibility-led throughout. For this client that is the baseline expectation, not an extra.
• Per-state landing pages. As the service grew into more states, each state got its own page.
• Tracking and reports. They rehired us to set up tracking and report on it.

The outcome

They came back. First for further improvements, then for tracking and reports, then for per-state pages as the service expanded. It is our longest-running client relationship.

The site now puts the therapists and the way to start where a visitor can act on them, on a phone as well as a desktop, and each state the organisation serves has its own page. We have not published client performance figures without permission.

What we'd do next

• Keep each state page in step with where the therapists are licensed as the practice grows.
• Report on real enquiries, the people who could actually become clients, rather than on page views.