Francis House Children’s Hospice launches ‘bold’ new website

Francis House Children’s Hospice, provider of care and support to families of children and young adults with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, has launched a new website.

The new site aims to promote the work of the Didsbury hospice and make it easier for families in need of support to find information.

Karen Flower, Public Relations officer at Francis House, said: “We wanted a website where people can find what they need as easily as possible. We are very excited that there are now countless ways for people to get involved and support the charity.”

The site was developed to allow members of the public to make quick, easy and secure donations and encourage support by enabling visitors to sign up to a number of exciting new events.

Calls-to-action are prominent with a donate button on the top right, and a streamlined donor journey allowing for regular and single donations to be made online.

The donation page links to different donation amounts to help potential donors understand how their money could help make a difference to a family’s life.

Half of the homepage is reserved to the range of services offered by the hospice. Making a referral to Francis House has also been given prominence with sign-posting ways to do so for both parents or healthcare professionals.

Karen added: “Following a series of workshops with Manchester based Reason Digital, the designers and developers of the new site, different visitor groups to the website were identified.

“This led to a discovery phase to identify ways of engaging with them more effectively.

“The user experience has been enhanced with new information, fresh visuals, and improved navigation, which makes it easy for visitors seeking to support or wanting to help, to understand the work.

“The new site is also fully responsive across devices and allows for plenty of social sharing.

“The bold homepage and content blocks make use of the three colours from the Francis House logo, which has also been recently updated, creating a dynamic and bold website.

“This reflects the ethos of the hospice as a stable and secure place that families from across Greater Manchester can depend upon for the long-term.”

Parents Michelle and Graeme Jones from Ramsbottom near Bury, with their daughter Emma feature on the homepage along with celebrity supporters chef Simon Rimmer and actor John Thomson, sign-posting visitors to the fundraising and volunteering pages