We were engaged by the Best For You team to not only design and develop a new website that put the needs of the audience front and centre, but made young people active participants in the process. The site was created for, and with, the target users.
Best For You is an innovative mental health project, addressing the growing and urgent crisis in young people’s mental health. The project is run in partnership by the charity CW+ and a number of NHS Trusts, including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
68% of young people surveyed in research commissioned as part of the Best For You programme reported that they had experienced one or more mental health difficulties in the past 12 months. At the same time, 31% reported barriers to accessing support and not knowing how to get support.
Making good on Best For You’s commitment to genuine collaboration with young people was a core objective for the project, and all aspects of design and development were shaped by consultations and user testing sessions with young people, incorporating a mix of in-person discussion and digital testing platforms to get first-hand insight and guidance from the audience on the content, language, visual style and navigation that they wanted to see on the refreshed site. This was supplemented by interviews with clinicians and healthcare professionals working in CAMHS, primary care, and hospital settings.
A key theme that emerged from the consultations was the need to visualise key topics in an engaging and relatable way, and to make the audience authors of that content. We facilitated a collaboration between Best For You and students at Westminster University, who produced a suite of imagery to illustrate key content throughout the site.
At the heart of the platform is a bespoke service finder designed to make seeking help feel simple and manageable. A two-stage journey allows young people to start with a calm, supportive search by location and topic before exploring a dynamic results page of relevant services, with additional filtering available when needed.
Built on a custom WordPress and Bricks Builder architecture, the platform combines advanced search capabilities with flexible content management, creating a scalable system that supports both curated and dynamically generated content.
6rs really took the time to understand the brief and worked with us to engage young people in the development of the site. The team were always there to help, and their creative approach helped us to create a site that feels intuitive, welcoming, and clear. ” — Annabel Rose, Communications & Digital Content Manager, Best For You
You can find out more about Best For You by heading over to bestforyou.org.uk
