Summary
After more than a year of development, we are excited to launch our new website!
As more people turn to online tools and resources for support, we wanted to ensure our website made our content as accessible as possible.
Key Features
- New navigation - we now have drop-down menus to help you find important pages fast
- Smart search - we have the latest in smart search technology that provides lightning fast results that improve over time
- More context, better layout - we have re-written all of our content to provide more context and understanding, while also laying out pages more effectively
- Richer content, simpler access- we have included more rich content to make our website more engaging, while working hard on how you get to the information to make copy more digestible
- Improved accessibility - we have incorporated a number of accessibility features to make the website easier to use for a wider range of audiences
- Fast and scalable - we’re using a number of technologies to make the website super snappy
You can read through our in-depth notes below on the full journey.
Finding Content
Try using the new navigation or smart search to find the content you’re after.
We have also dropped in hundreds of redirects from our old website, and you can Contact Us if there is something missing that you cannot find.
Lastly, our old website is still accessible over at archive.mentalhealth.org.nz, in case you need to find an old resource.
What’s Next
This is just the beginning, and we are excited to be working with our digital partners at RIVER to continually enhance and evolve our new website. We will be adding new content, adding new features, and making the search results smarter, to ensure our content is more accessible than ever!
Overview
For us at the Mental Health Foundation, it’s a big deal that we are able to support hundreds of thousands of Kiwis every year through our online tools and resources on our website. As more people turn to online tools and resources for support, we want to ensure we were doing everything we can to make our website content as accessible and as relevant as possible.
To make this happen, we worked with our digital partners at RIVER to embark on a journey of designing, developing, and re-writing content for our new website.
Purpose
We wanted to provide a great online experience that made our content more accessible and enjoyable than ever, to support our vision of a society free from discrimination, where all people enjoy positive mental health & wellbeing. To achieve this, we made it our goal to:
- Make our online content more accessible than ever
- Make it easy for online audiences to find the content they need
- Ensure our content is easy to digest and enjoyable to read
- Build a website that can continue to grow and evolve over time
- Make a difference that supports people’s lives
A website for everyone
From tradies to parents and whānau, to tamariki and professionals and everyone in-between - our first important challenge was to build a website that all of Aotearoa would be able to use.
Over a thousand pages
When we combine a website for everyone with the fact we have more than a thousand pages of content, we find ourselves with a hefty challenge:
Making it easy for a diverse range of people to find the content they need across more than a thousand pages - all without breaking a sweat…
To achieve this, we knew we would need to combine a great navigation experience alongside powerful search, and effective links between relevant content within the site.
Our Approach
With such a diverse audience, we followed an evidence-based approach for our website architecture and design. This included focus groups, questionnaires, prototyping, and a raft of tests and feedback.
We then incorporated the latest technologies and processes that have been proven to work effectively in the areas we needed, that would scale over time as our new website continues to grow and evolve.
Overall we knew making a great website for everyone would be a tough challenge, though we have worked hard to make a positive difference for the widest range of audiences we could.
Key Features
Honing in on our key challenges of a website for everyone and showcasing huge amounts of content, we incorporated key features aimed at making content easy to find, accessible, and digestible.
Key Changes
With both a new website and new content, there are a number of key changes for existing online audiences to be aware of.
Finding Content
You can now use the new navigation or search to find key content you are looking for, and we have also incorporated over 300 redirects from our old website.
Important Links
You can find new links to our most popular pages and sections here:
Archived Content
Our old website is still accessible over at archive.mentalhealth.org.nz if there are old resources you cannot find:
What's next
Launching our new website is only the beginning. Alongside running some amazing campaigns and making a difference in the community, we plan to keep improving and evolving our website.
Our Roadmap
We have a range of new features planned out, and we are continuing to take on more feedback as we work toward providing the best online experience we can.
Alongside this, we continue to update and improve key pieces of content on our website everyday, as we continue to make the site as enjoyable and engaging as possible.
Contact Us
A good website is always evolving, and we would love to hear from you if there is any feedback you would like to provide. Feel free to contact us and leave a message.