A new website experience that transforms lives by providing access to toilets for all
Providing people with disability and high support needs access to suitable, safe, and private bathroom facilities.
Deliverables
Digital experience
Website
What are Changing Places?
A Changing Places facility is a special public toilet, set up for people with profound physical disability or mobility issue. They are built to exacting standards, including a change table, mechanical hoist, and enough room to move a wheelchair around. People access them with a special key that unlocks every Changing Place. Changing Places are transformatively powerful to the people that use them.
Brief
The Changing Places website CMS was out of date, bringing a number of security vulnerabilities and in need of a new fresh platform. Additionally, the evolution of their services required a product catalogue to streamline the building process. With a growing demand for Changing Places plans and specifications, DFFH recognised the potential of their CMS technology to better serve their expanding network.
The primary focus for Think HQ was addressing the needs of the website's core audience, enabling them to quickly locate nearby accessible toilets while on the go or plan their journey with available toilet information. Think HQ was approached by DFFH to redesign the website, prioritising full accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) and robust security measures for the new platform.
Approach
Think HQ's approach was fully inclusive of all users of the websites, from the beneficiaries of the facility to the professionals involved in the facility build process. As we engaged with our audience through user research (1:1 interviews), we identified the pain points and adjusted our wireframes based on their feedback and interactions, until we were confident that our suggested solution would meet all expectations.
Outcomes
The result is a visually pleasing experience with high practicality, inclusive of all users of the website. The new CMS built in Drupal, 9 provides high security and ease of content management using the Layout Builder so the DFFH team can create and construct pages as they like. The end-user experience is fast and fully accessible (2.1 Level AA compliance) becoming a more valuable tool to users who are dependent on it to enjoy their life. The new web experience will be able to cater for the added investment from the government and their commitment to multiply the number of facilities built by 2024. Since the release in 2023, the number of Changing Places toilets has increased to 255, and the new features have been received well by the community.
