National Literacy Trust

The National Literacy Trust needed a complete rethink and redesign of its platform and CMS. Thousands of existing pages and resources meant the architecture needed a full revamp, and everything from taxonomy, pricing and account types to content strategy, registration, payment and look and feel had to be redefined.

Client: National Literacy Trust
Role: Lead product designer
Agency: Hactar
Sector: Education charity
Audiences: Teachers, schools, parents, supporters
Platform: Responsive web & CMS
Scope: Product strategy, Information architecture, UX, UI, Design system

The redesigned National Literacy Trust homepage on a tablet and a phone, with a pink-to-red hero over a classroom photo, a keyword search and a “We support teachers, schools and early years” section.

The challenge

Years of growth had left valuable content hard to find. The site had thousands of pages for teachers, schools, parents and supporters, a CMS that was hard to manage, and an unclear membership offer.

Approach

Rebuild the architecture around audiences and school phases.
Define the model: taxonomy, pricing, accounts and membership.
Design a system, not just pages, so the team could manage content in the CMS.

Hand-drawn wireframes for page templates including membership, fundraising, corporate support and campaigns, pinned to a wall. — Sketching templates for every page type.

The new National Literacy Trust sitemap, colour-coded by page type, from the homepage through audience landing pages to articles and downloads. — The new sitemap, colour-coded by template type.

Outcome

A rebuilt platform with a clear, audience-led structure, a filterable resource library, phase landing pages, member dashboards, and a design system the team could use consistently.

The resource library with a filter sidebar for type, audience, phase, ages, writing and reading, next to a masonry grid of labelled cards for premium resources, research, training, events and news.