Affinity Trust

A website that no longer met user needs.

Affinity Trust is a leading social care provider and charitable organisation supporting people across England and Scotland. With over 30 years of experience, they specialise in supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, and other assessed needs, helping them to live active and fulfilling lives. 

Since its establishment in 1991, Affinity Trust has steadily expanded its services, ensuring that more individuals receive the care and opportunities they deserve. However, its previous website was no longer fit for purpose, creating barriers to engagement and limiting its ability to effectively reach and support people. 

Key challenges included: 

• Poor mobile experience: the site wasn’t optimised for mobile users, despite the majority of traffic coming from mobile devices. 
• Complex navigation: the site’s information architecture (IA) was confusing, with some pages buried up to 11 levels deep. 
• Inefficient donation process: it lacked standard mobile payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay, making donating inconvenient. 
• Long, complex forms: which led to high drop-off rates and low engagement in key areas like events. 

Affinity Trust made it clear: this wasn’t just another website rebuild, it was a chance to redefine their digital presence and ensure it truly served the people who needed it most. 

A website that works for everyone.

Working closely with Affinity Trust, we took a lean, agile approach, ensuring every decision was based on user insight and research. 

Our core goals: 

• Improve usability and accessibility across all devices 
• Simplify navigation so users could find critical support faster 
• Streamline donation and event sign-ups to increase engagement 
• Enhance content structure & readability with human, accessible language 

By focusing on user-first design and functionality, we created a website that doesn’t just look good, it works harder for the people who need it most. 

A user-centric, high-impact website.

1. A more intuitive and accessible experience 

We redesigned Affinity Trust’s website with one key principle: make it easy for people to get the support they need. 

Working collaboratively with Affinity Trust's brand agency, we refined the digital design to balance creativity with accessibility. Subtle adjustments ensured the new site met high accessibility standards without compromising visual appeal.

• Full mobile optimisation: ensuring the site performs flawlessly across all devices. 
• Simplified information architecture: cutting down deep, hidden pages and improving navigation. 
• More accessible design: ensuring the site meets WCAG accessibility standards for all users. 
• Easy Ready component: developed to use simplified language, large fonts and clear visual cues to make information easier to understand for people with learning disabilities.

2. A frictionless donation journey 

We reworked Affinity Trust’s donation process, making it simpler, faster, and more convenient: 

• Added Apple Pay and Google Pay for effortless mobile donations. 
• Optimised the donation flow, reducing unnecessary steps. 
• Encouraged more giving by showing impact-driven messaging at every stage. 

3. Driving engagement through events and support 

To increase participation in Affinity Trust’s events and support services, we: 

• Redesigned the event sign-up journey to make it more user-friendly. 
• Created clear call-to-actions (CTAs) to guide users to help buttons and forms. 
• Simplified key forms, making it easier for users to get support quickly. 
• Behind the scenes, an intuitive form builder gives Affinity Trust the flexibility to create and update forms quickly, without relying on third-party integrations, helping them respond faster to user needs.

Protecting vulnerable service users was central to the project. We built a privacy-first housing vacancy feature that anonymises location data and prevents sensitive content from being indexed, ensuring safety without reducing usability. During development and testing, we used realistic but anonymised test data to ensure a secure build environment while safeguarding personal information. 

A website that delivers measurable results.

These improvements aren’t the result of just one big change, they come from thoughtful design, smarter navigation, improved accessibility, and better usability. This project also set a benchmark for ethical digital design, proving that accessibility built in from the start is more powerful, sustainable and compliant than bolt-on accessibility tools or overlays.

By creating a seamless, user-first experience, we’ve helped Affinity Trust reach and support more people than ever before. 

Affinity Trust’s new website isn’t just a short-term upgrade, it's the foundation of an ongoing partnership. Through continued SEO optimisation and content development, Affinity Trust is growing its reach and impact online with a future-proofed solution designed to: 

• Continue driving engagement & donations 
• Support ongoing content updates with a flexible CMS 
• Evolve with the charity’s needs over time 

With a strong digital foundation in place, Affinity Trust is now better equipped to support people and drive its mission forward.