Elrha Website Redesign

01 Where it all started

Elrha’s website had grown into a large and content-heavy platform over many years. Although rich in information, it no longer supported the needs of the organisation or its diverse audiences. Visitors struggled to locate core content, navigation was unclear, and the internal linking structure made it difficult to understand how different parts of the site related to each other. Moreover, they were experiencing technical performance issues, inconsistent search visibility, and accessibility limitations.

At the same time, Elrha’s brand identity was strong and widely respected. Users consistently shared positive feedback about the organisation’s professionalism and visual presence. Yet the website itself did not reflect that same sense of coherence or contemporary quality. Elrha needed a modern, user-centred digital platform that could make their extensive resources accessible, intuitive, and meaningful for very different groups of visitors - from researchers and humanitarian partitioners to grantees, donors, and partners.

It was clear that a complete redesign was required, beginning with a thorough understanding of audience needs and organisational goals.

02 Where we came in

We entered the project by leading a comprehensive Discovery phase designed to uncover the realities of how people used - and struggled with - Elrha’s existing site. To do this, we facilitated stakeholder workshops and interviews to define key personas and map user journeys, capturing why people visit the website, which pages matter most to them, how they try to navigate the site, and where they encounter friction or confusion.

This work was complemented by direct user research. We conducted in-depth interviews across several persona groups, along with a user survey. These conversations allowed us to confirm behaviours, expectations, and pain points across very different audience types. The consistency of the findings reinforced the need for a more intuitive structure, clearer content hierarchy, and more accessible pathways to information.

In parallel, we assessed the website’s content, SEO performance, accessibility compliance, and technical setup. We evaluated the levels of authority, trust, performance, and optimisation, and identified where the current build was impacting search visibility. We also reviewed the site’s architecture, identifying duplication, unclear categorisation, and structural gaps that made content difficult to find.

All this was synthesised into a comprehensive report, a presentation distributed across the company, and a working session with their Senior Leadership Team - all ensuring company-wide alignment on their direction of travel.

This phase produced a clear picture: Elrha’s brand was strong, its content valuable, but its website did not adequately support real user journeys. The next step was to design a new experience grounded in research and aligned with modern web and accessibility standards.

03 What we delivered

1.0 Co-Design and User Testing

We approached the redesign collaboratively, working closely with Elrha’s team to validate ideas and decisions. The co-design process began with defining personas and understanding audience motivations. We mapped out how users currently interacted with the website, identifying points of friction and gaps in navigation.

Using insights from the discovery phase, we created detailed user journeys that illustrated how each audience type interacts with the website. These journey maps informed decisions about how information should be grouped, what content should sit at top-level navigation, and how users could be guided naturally toward the information they needed. The result was a structure that supports intuitive exploration rather than forcing users to guess where content might be located.

These insights informed a set of initial wireframes and an interactive prototype, which we tested through user interviews. The testing phase was essential: it revealed how people expected content to be organised, whether the new information architecture made sense to them, and how effectively they could complete common tasks. Feedback from this stage enabled us to refine navigation labels, simplify content structures, and confirm the visual and UX direction.

2.0 Technical Audit and Content Migration

Alongside the UX and design work, we conducted an in-depth technical review of the legacy WordPress site. This included an audit of its SEO performance, accessibility issues, content quality, and structural reliability. We analysed the site's reliance on branded and technical search terms, identifying opportunities to expand its visibility by improving language clarity and content relevance.

All findings were synthesised into recommendations for a more efficient, user-centred architecture. We also evaluated the long-term suitability of WordPress versus Webflow, comparing their strengths, limitations, and implications for Elrha’s internal team. Although WordPress was familiar, Webflow offered a more flexible, user-friendly approach that aligned more closely with Elrha’s goals for autonomy, scalability, and ease of maintenance. After reviewing our recommendation and the comparative evidence, Elrha chose to adopt Webflow as their new CMS.

A big part of this was creating a content migration strategy to catalogue and map legacy content into a coherent structure that aligned with the new information architecture.

3.0 Brand and Visual Language

Our design process was rooted in the strengths of Elrha’s brand. Rather than moving away from it, we enhanced the brand expression by introducing complementary colours, dynamic graphic elements, and a more modern visual rhythm across the website. Considering Elrha’s focus areas (e.g. Gender-based violence (GBV), Water, sanitatation and hygience (WASH)), our design team built custom iconography. Alll of this work ensured the site felt contemporary while remaining unmistakably Elrha’s.

We developed layouts that are clean, accessible, and easy to scan. The prototypes translated these ideas into tangible page structures that could be tested and iterated with real users, ensuring that the final visual direction was both appealing and practical.

4.0 Development Sprints and Training

The development phase took place over several sprints, during which we built the entire website in Webflow and executed the full content migration. We adhered to WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards throughout, and where possible implemented AAA criteria. We ensured that pages loaded quickly on both desktop and mobile - particularly important for users in humanitarian contexts who may have limited internet bandwidth.

We also implemented SEO best practices, setting up canonical tags, ensuring correct pagination for key content areas, and optimising metadata and site markup. The site underwent a rigorous quality assurance process: first internally, then with Elrha’s team.

As part of preparing the organisation for the new platform, we delivered training and onboarding throughout the project. This included developing tutorial videos, documentation, guidance notes, and hands-on sessions to help staff feel confident in using Webflow.

5.0 CMS Website and Webflow Implementation

The final website provides Elrha with a flexible, scalable content management system. Templates were designed with built-in internal linking logic, ensuring consistent layout patterns and automated connections between related content types. This dramatically reduces admin workload while improving SEO and user experience.

We also enabled multilingual support for the new Humanitarian Innovation Guide, introducing translations in Arabic, French, and Spanish. To ensure continued access to the legacy guide, we created a downloadable PDF version that will remain available to users who rely on those materials.

04 Impact

The redesigned Elrha website represents a significant improvement in usability, clarity, accessibility, and long-term sustainability.

Users now encounter a website that is far easier to navigate, thanks to a clear hierarchy and intentional internal linking structure. Information is presented in a more intuitive and consistent way, enabling visitors to quickly understand what Elrha does, how funding works, and where to access specific resources. Early user testing confirmed that the new design reduces confusion and supports a smoother, more logical browsing experience with users spending lower time finding the information they need and applying for opportunities.

For Elrha’s internal team, the impact is equally substantial. The new Webflow CMS dramatically simplifies content management, enabling staff to make updates without relying on technical support. Automated internal linking, standardised templates, and improved content governance tools ensure that the website can grow in a structured and sustainable way. Performance and accessibility improvements make the site more inclusive and reliable, particularly for users working in low-connectivity environments.

As Elrha continues to expand its work, the new website provides a flexible foundation that can adapt to future needs and support ongoing growth.

05 Our unique value

Our approach was rooted in genuine collaboration and evidence-based decision-making. Rather than delivering a surface-level redesign, we engaged deeply with Elrha’s audiences, internal team, and existing content landscape to ensure the new website addressed real needs.

We combined user research, UX design, content strategy, SEO expertise, accessibility best practices, and technical development into a cohesive process that prioritised both user experience and organisational sustainability. One of the hallmarks of our work was the balance between honouring ELRHA’s established brand identity and giving it a refreshed, modern expression that will remain relevant for years.

Another key strength was our ability to guide Elrha through complex decisions - such as selecting the right CMS - by presenting clear, thorough, and unbiased comparisons. The result was not just a new website, but a long-term digital foundation that empowers the organisation’s staff, supports global users, and reflects Elrha’s mission with greater clarity and impact.