ANDYSMANCLUB

A headless website to provide crucial support to more men.

Deliverables

CMS website

Front end

Headless

Storyblok

UI & UX design

Web development

Recognition

CSS Design Awards Web Guru Awards Prolific North Champions Award 2023

Designing and building a new headless website to help a mental health charity provide crucial support to more men.

ANDYSMANCLUB is a men’s mental health support charity, offering free-to-attend peer-to-peer support groups across the UK and online. We developed a headless website that would direct men in need to access support via their nearest clubs as quickly and easily as possible.

Visit the website

The challenge

Just as loneliness and isolation peaked as a consequence of the UK lockdown, the option for ANDYSMANCLUB’s face-to-face support also ground to a halt. At this time, there was more emphasis than ever placed on the charity’s online communications – and the website became an even more valuable tool. However, it was unable to cope with ever-increasing numbers of people seeking assistance and it regularly crashed. Given the function of the website, the fact it was inaccessible was devastating to many users, leaving them without much-needed support at the time it was needed most.

Hearing of the difficulties, we were inspired to develop a website that would direct men in need to access support via their nearest clubs as quickly and easily as possible.

How we've helped

It’s essential that website users who are mentally struggling don’t feel overwhelmed. For this reason, we made the navigation much clearer and put the focus on the main CTA ‘Find your nearest group’, while secondary CTAs are now hidden in a burger navigation. Time and date for meet-ups and the fact they’re free to attend are repeated and widely noticeable across the site, ensuring our message that support is readily available is always easily seen.

We also stripped back the colour palette to black and white with a bold CTA colour of yellow. Paired with a strong, heavy typeface, the site now has a masculine feel to appeal to its men-only audience.

Several visual and technical enhancements and usability improvements have been made for mobile users, while the UI is now more streamlined for ease of access to vital information. Subtle transitions on scroll make it a pleasant UX.

Finally, we’ve featured testimonials and videos around the site so those struggling can learn about others’ positive experiences with ANDYSMANCLUB. Now, there’s a greater sense of community and users can see the team, trustees and army of facilitators on hand to provide men with a safe space to talk.

Working with The Bigger Boat on this project has been a pleasure. The team has gone above and beyond to ensure that we have a site that fulfils all our needs as a charity. It has been of immense value for me to lean on their expertise throughout the process and the time spent and attention to detail shown has been beyond our expectations. Thank you to everyone at The Bigger Boat for their assistance in creating a website that is informative, vibrant and will allow men in need of support across the UK to find their nearest ANDYSMANCLUB group within seconds.

Lucas Whitehead

Marketing manager, ANDYSMANCLUB

We didn’t want the navigation to be too overwhelming for users who are mentally struggling when they first land on the site. We’ve stripped it back so it’s much clearer to direct men to their nearest support group so those going through hardships can open up and talk in a safe, judgement-free space. A great client to work with and help deliver the message that it’s okay to talk.

Charlotte Conqueror

Senior UI/UX designer, The Bigger Boat