MyLocalMind is a community wellbeing and mental health charity, with the goal of filling gaps in the mental health system. This project aimed to assist MyLocalMind with their business goals by redesigning the website to make it more effective. Working in a team of 3, I helped design and build a custom new Wordpress website for MyLocalMind with the functionality they wanted, which fit in with their existing brand elements, and which provided them with the ability to easily edit and add content in the future.
The process for creating MyLocalMind’s new website began with research and investigation. Through analysing the old website and competitors’ websites, talking to MyLocalMind, we (the team of 3 students from Murdoch University) determined what the goals of the website were. Through discussion with MyLocalMind, we determined what the content for the site was, and developed user journey maps, and behavioural archetypes, which would help us design the website for the target demographic.
We then worked together to organise the content for the website and work out how to achieve the project goals through the web design. We created a site map which outlined the flow and navigation of the website, and created 3 different mood boards. These mood boards each contained examples of typography, colours, websites, images, patterns and graphic elements which would inform the design direction in the next stage of the project
Using the research we had gathered and the site map as a reference, we then developed wireframes for the homepage and top level links, creating an information architecture which would achieve the goals. The wireframes were critiqued and iterated on until we arrived at the final proposed design.
All of this research and investigation was compiled in a project brief document for MyLocalMind, complete with a project summary, timeline, scope, and content audit. MyLocalMind then provided feedback on the wireframes and moodboards, noting some final changes to the wireframes and selecting one of the 3 mood boards. This marked the end of the research and investigation stage, and the beginning of the development stage.
The development stage consisted of creating the design compositions (design comps) and building the website. Based on the selected mood board and the wireframes, we each created design comps for the homepage and a global subpage, and then based on feedback from MyLocalMind, combined different aspects to create a final design composition. Using the final design comp, we coded the pages in html and css for the website, and then converted this code to php in order to dynamically generate content in Wordpress. We created a custom theme, and added templates, plugins and functionality on Wordpress so that MyLocalMind could edit the website content themselves. The final stage involved providing MyLocalMind with a handover package, and MyLocalMind signing off on the project. We created a handover packaging consisting of detailed instructions on how to make changes and additions to various parts of the website without breaking the site or losing important styling elements.
This project required a lot of management in order to meet deadlines and solve problems, but through excellent team work this project was a huge success. We managed to efficiently divide up the workload and work to our strengths while helping each other out when we could. We also made sure to stay in constant contact with MyLocalMind, keeping them up-to-date with where we were at and what we would be doing next, as well as any project changes or problems which cropped up.While we worked together excellently in the team, we did have some issues when transferring over the website and some of the more technical parts, but managed to overcome these issues through working together, clear communication, and putting in some extra time so that we could finish the website by the deadline.
The success of this project is clear through not only the fact that we achieved all the outlined goals, improved on the design, and fixed all the glitches from the old website, but also through MyLocalMind’s testimonial:
Dear Murdoch Team,
I am writing to sign off on the MyLocalMind Inc website that you have built. It is fully functional, of high quality, and no further changes are required.
You have exceeded our expectations considerably and our team are very impressed with every aspect of your work. The product you have developed and provided us is more professional and functional than we had envisaged and your efforts in considering and implementing the nuanced feedback we posed throughout the process has been exceptional.
We would not hesitate to employ your team if we had funding to do so and we would eagerly add you to our volunteer cohort now or in the future should you wish to contribute to our organisation and more broadly to the mental health and wellbeing of our community.
Thank you for work outstanding work. We hope to work with you again in the near future.
Kind regards,
Dr Kaine Grigg MAPS
Founding Consultant Clinical Psychologist MyLocalMind Inc.
