New website launch at BTUK
Exciting times! If you haven’t already noticed, we have a brand new website! Woohoo! Perhaps way overdue, in truth!
If you’re here reading this then welcome, feel free to have a look around. It’s still a work in progress with some design tweaks left to make, and some content additions to create, but all in all we are happy with the improvements we’ve made. We’re thrilled to share some of the new features here with you in this blog and give a teaser of what is to yet come.
All of this is part of our efforts to ensure we provide the best possible support and information to those who are both directly and indirectly dealing with testicular cancer. So without further ado, let’s get into it…
Why have we built a new website?
The simple answer, the previous website wasn’t working as it should or how we’d like it to. Without boring you with the details, this was largely due to bugs and technical tedious things. Essentially, we were no longer happy with the platform used to build and host the website.
More importantly though, after having the same design for almost ten years, we thought it was time for a refresh. Our charity has grown immensely over the last couple of years in terms of the number of active trustees, the quality of our advice and information, and the level of support we have to offer. Our online platform needed to reflect this.
So, we built it all again, from scratch. As mentioned before, this is still being worked on as we build on the content and add more resources. But the framework of the website is there and we think it’s exactly what we need. We’ve already seen the fruits of our labour start coming through, but more about that in the next section!
What’s new?
Donation feature
We now have new functionality that allows people to make donations directly via the website using our new simple pop-up feature. This is something we have wanted to allow for a while as your kind donations allow us to provide vital one-to-one support sessions for those in need. We have already started to see donations coming through and we cannot thank those enough who have helped. It truly means a lot to us.
New information and support
A whole new section that is packed with resources, guidance, awareness talks, videos and a series dedicated to real survivor stories. In addition to our blog, this will create a library of information that covers everything from how to check your nuts to a testicular cancer recovery plan. This section is still being developed with new resources and pages being added every month. We will keep you updated on the progress of this as it happens!
Clearer and cleaner design
A little spring clean every now and then doesn’t go amiss, and we certainly needed one on the BTUK website! It may be coming into winter now, but we began the redesign earlier this year. Whilst we have kept the same logo, colours, and branding – we have tidied up the site structure, menu, and overall page layout. Pages follow a similar format and we feel the overall vibe is clean, clear and consistent. At least we hope so!
WhatsApp group
To coincide with the new website offerings, we have also launched a WhatsApp group for the people our charity supports. There’s currently 9 of us in there at the moment, so it’s a strong start! This is a place for members to seek direct help or advice, ask questions, or simply chew the fat with other men going through their own testicular cancer journey. Sometimes we just talk football! If you would like to get involved let us know – get in touch!
What’s coming?
Survivor series
As mentioned earlier, we are working on a new series on the website called the ‘Survivor Series’. We are still planning exactly what this will look like and how it will play out, but we have a number of great ideas. This will primarily include videos, stories, creative pieces and personal accounts from real people who have survived testicular cancer. We’re really looking forward to working some of you on this!
Still working on design
As much as we have given the site a spring clean and worked on a cleaner and more consistent design, we’re not done just yet! There are still elements of the site and its imagery that we would like to tweak and improve. This includes the addition of some real life photos of our fundraising activities, awareness talks and some of the people we have helped.
Now the framework is in place, we can focus more on our branding and imagery. We’ll be back with an update on that soon!