Charity · Website Redesign

The Sick Children's Trust

Turning quiet compassion into the courage to give.

A focused redesign of the charity's website that clears the path from emotional story to donation, and opens up more ways for people to help.

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Client
The Sick Children's Trust
My role
UX & UI DesignEnd to end
Timeline
2 monthsJul to Aug 2022
Scope
Website redesignDesktop
Focus
Donation conversion
thesickchildrenstrust.org
Redesigned Sick Children's Trust landing page
The short version

A charity that moves people, with a site that let that feeling slip away.

01 The problem

Emotion, then a dead end

The stories did their job and moved people, but the path to actually give was buried, busy and easy to lose. Good will was not turning into donations, and only a narrow set of giving options was on offer.

02 What I did

Let emotion lead, then make giving effortless

I audited the experience and redesigned around a single principle: tell the story, then put the donation moment right where the feeling peaks. I also opened up more ways to give, all while staying true to an established brand.

03 The outcome

A clear, calm path to act

  • A calmer header and landing that lead the eye to the call-to-action
  • A "Donate now" moment placed straight after the story
  • Wider giving options for different donor capacities
  • A redesign that respects, not breaks, the brand
10
Homes from Home the charity runs across England
£0
Cost to the families who stay, every single time
3
Focused redesign moves, each tied to a real friction point
2
Months, start to finished design
The cause

When a child is in hospital, a parent should be minutes away.

The Sick Children's Trust gives families a free "Home from Home" close to their seriously ill child's hospital bed, so no parent has to choose between being there and getting by.

It is a deeply human mission, and the website is where that mission either earns support or loses it. Every donation keeps a family together at the hardest moment of their lives. That raised the stakes of the redesign: this was not about clicks, it was about whether someone moved by a story could actually turn that feeling into help.

People felt the stories. They just could not easily find the moment to give, so compassion quietly drained away before it could become a donation.

How I worked

Audit first, then remove the friction.

I started by walking the existing site as a donor would, mapping where attention built and where it leaked. The pattern was clear: the emotional content worked, but the interface around it competed for attention and hid the one action that mattered.

From there, every decision answered one question, does this help a moved visitor give, or get in their way? Anything that did not earn its place came out.

before · the original layout
The original website before the redesign
The work

Three moves, one clear journey.

Move 01

A calmer header and landing

I refined the colour scheme, reorganised the logo and menu, and gently dimmed the hero imagery so it set the mood without shouting over the message. The result is a quieter page where the eye lands naturally on the call-to-action, with the brand still unmistakably itself.

redesigned landing
Redesigned header and landing page
Move 02

"Inspired to act? Donate now."

The biggest unlock was timing. I placed a clear, simple donation moment directly after the storytelling, the instant a visitor feels the most. Instead of asking people to go hunting for a way to help, the help is right there, the second the feeling peaks.

donate section
Donate now section placed after the story
Move 03

More ways to give

Not everyone gives in the same way, so I expanded the options beyond a single one-off donation, adding routes like gifts in wills and product giving. Meeting people where they are, with the level of giving that suits them, widens the door to support without adding pressure.

ways to give
Expanded ways to give
The result

A site that carries feeling all the way to action.

The redesign reconnects the two things that had drifted apart: the emotional pull of the charity's work, and the simple act of giving to it.

Emotion leads, action follows
The donation moment now sits exactly where intent is highest, not several clicks away.
A calmer, clearer page
Reduced visual noise and a stronger hierarchy let the message and the call-to-action breathe.
More open doors to give
Wider options welcome different donor capacities, from one-off gifts to gifts in wills.
True to the brand
Every change works within the charity's existing identity, strengthening it rather than replacing it.
What I took from it

Designing for an established brand taught me to improve a service without losing the trust its identity had already earned.

Thanks for reading

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The Sick Children's Trust · Mo Rezaei · UX & UI Design