The Film and TV Charity
A new digital presence to support workers in film, TV and cinema
The Film and TV Charity are a progressive organisation looking to make real change in an industry that desperately needs it.
What we did
- Content strategy
- Usability testing
- Website design and build
Impact measured against UN Sustainable Development Goals
Every year they support thousands of people to address personal and professional obstacles, including ones that impact mental health, financial wellbeing, or that are caused by workplace culture.
They provide in-the-moment, practical support with mental and physical health – everything from a listening ear when people need one through to counselling. They are completely independent and their support is always impartial and confidential.
The charity was keen to bring together the two sides of their work – supporting individuals and influencing structural change in the industry through research – and demonstrate how these strengthen and add credibility to each other.
Their new website does this by being accessible to all while having clearer navigation and journeys to allow people to travel across their content, no matter where they enter the site from.
Since launch, we’ve seen the results of this approach pay off quickly:
114%
increase in Whole Picture Toolkit access
59%
increase in organic search traffic
87%
increase in online support service access
12%
increase in referral traffic
A huge thank you to the team – you’ve all been amazing and it’s a real achievement that we’ve stuck to our deadlines. This is the first website redevelopment I’ve worked on that hasn’t slipped timings-wise!
Harriet Hart, Digital Delivery Lead, The Film and TV Charity
A simplified navigation
Through a detailed process of user testing, card sorting and expert insight, we simplified the header navigation, using labels that made sense to the people coming to the website, rather than the organisation.
Some examples include using ‘Get support’ and ‘Get involved’ rather than ‘Leading change’.
From these insights, we then prioritised an urgent support journey where beneficiaries could contact the support line or emergency services right away. The new website includes a quick ‘get help now’ link in the header and a direct call-to-action button.
The other routes to access support are now more connected throughout the website content, such as showing how financial stress or dealing with harassment is likely to also impact someone’s mental health.
Helping people through a challenging time
The website project came at a challenging time for the industry. Strikes, unemployment and an increased demand for the charity’s services meant that between August and October 2023, there was an 800% increase in their stopgap grants applications.
This was combined with an ongoing industry challenge of the lack of diversity and inequality in relation to ethnicity, gender, disability, class, age, and the intersections between these.
This led to a strong focus on new advice content that focused on ‘discrimination’ which will continue to be expanded post-launch.
We’re shining a light on the highs and the lows of this extraordinary industry, helping people to smash their career goals and fulfil their potential.
Head of Client Services, The Film and TV Charity
Designing a look and feel suitable for the creative industries
From the outset of the project The Film and TV Charity team were keen to ensure that the website design represented the creativity of the industry they are a part of.
This wasn’t a superficial ‘nice to have’, it was to make people feel as though the charity understands them, and to make them feel at home when they arrive at the website, often in a time of deep stress and anxiety.
The previous website had a distinct lack of video, considering the industry that the charity works in. An impactful video on the homepage hero section was important to the charity. This video auto-plays, but because moving content can be a severe distraction for some people (particularly those with vestibular or attention-deficit disorders), a clear pause button has been added to the video.
People come to our website with a presenting need or concern but how do we connect them to what else they might need?
Service Delivery Manager, The Film and TV Charity
Accessibility from the ground up
The technologies that underpin modern websites are deeply accessible when implemented correctly. In order to make a product that everyone can access, we go beyond a simple technical implementation and think about content and user journeys.
This means using plain English and simple language which helps people who have low literacy, are speaking English as a second language or have cognitive difficulties as well as those who are pressed for time or multi-tasking.
Links to the main pages were lost in the main navigation of the old website because hovering over the link on a desktop screen opened the drop-down menu. We used an accessible pattern on the new website, where a click opens an area that displays the link to the main page as well as links to its second-level child pages.
All of these approaches and more ensured that the charity does not need any add-ons to make the website accessible to all – it has been built to be so from the ground up.
An effective technical build
Throughout the project we sought to deeply understand the needs of the different content editors that would use the website. As a result, the new website uses a variety of different content blocks to build the content pages that users interact with.
These are combined with nine different reusable content templates to allow maximum flexibility for the editors, while maintaining consistency.
Of particular importance for the team at the charity was the ability to create new campaign landing pages without needing to engage a developer. This is now a simple task thanks to the way we have deployed Craft’s easy to use editor experience.
Moving from Wordpress to Craft
The transition from WordPress to Craft for the website content management system (CMS) offered several advantages.
- Craft’s architecture natively supports flexible content blocks, improving editorial workflow without relying on third-party plugins.
- The CMS also starts with a clean slate, allowing for a fast-loading and accessible website by loading only essential assets.
- Craft’s security features, like CSRF protection, and its robust maintenance reduce the risks associated with frequent WordPress updates and plugin vulnerabilities.
- The live preview feature and streamlined process for domain changes and site iterations foster a more intuitive web development experience, ensuring future site enhancements are more efficient.