Unlock Cyber - SEND Section

Project: UX-Driven Accessibility Redesign for UWE & SEND Website Sections

The Challenge
I was the design lead on a team tasked with an accessibility overhaul for a website serving users with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The existing site had significant usability barriers, largely because it wasn't built on a foundation of user research. A major technical obstacle was that the organisation's official brand colours did not meet WCAG accessibility standards for colour contrast, which directly compromised the experience for visually impaired users.

My Solution
I spearheaded a user-centric redesign of the UWE and SEND sections, grounding every decision in a robust UX process.

Intensive User Research: Our team conducted in-depth user research to properly understand the needs and challenges of the SEND community. From this, we developed detailed user personas and mapped out user journey paths, which became the blueprint for our design strategy.

Design & Planning: Based on our research findings, I wireframed and designed the new sections with a primary focus on intuitive navigation and accessibility.

Creative Problem-Solving: When the client's brand palette presented a roadblock, I successfully negotiated a compromise. We agreed to make all SEND-related sections of the site completely free of the non-compliant colours, ensuring the core user group had a fully accessible experience.

Enhanced Tooling: To provide further support, I integrated a dedicated accessibility toolkit and screen reader functionality, giving users more control over how they interact with the content.

The Result
The redesigned sections are now significantly more accessible and user-friendly. The research-driven approach ensured the final design met the specific needs of the SEND community.

Crucially, I also delivered updated branding guidelines to the client. This document not only provided a solution for the colour contrast issue for all future projects but also gave them a more cohesive and accessible brand identity moving forward. The project successfully balanced client constraints with user needs, creating an inclusive digital environment and providing lasting value beyond the website itself.

Key Skills Showcased: UX Research, User Personas, User Journey Mapping, Wireframing, Accessible Design (WCAG), Branding Guidelines, Client Negotiation