Mencap design strategy

Unifying the online presence of the UK's largest learning disabilities charity: Art direction, strategy and design.

Mencap's an amazing organisation - they've been working for the learning disabled since the 1950s, and they've almost singlehandedly revolutionised the way those people are treated by society. I was really pleased to help them out with some digital design strategy at Enable in 2009.

I spent quite a while thinking of ways to make Mencap sites instantly recognisable. It was really important that people with learning disabilities could engage with them, but I didn't want to fall into using the classic charity visual language of primary colours and whitespace - I felt like they deserved more.

The approach I settled on was to use full-screen background images, tailored to match the content currently featured on the site's homepage. It created instant visual interest, really maximised the impact of the most important content, and wasn't too distracting for the sites' users.

We also created a library of common elements and a strong, adaptable palette that allowed sites across the charity to create pages from a selection of parts. Consistent header styling, buttons and image treatments unified disparate properties, while a modular approach ensured just the right amount of controlled difference.