Transforming Digital Services at the British Red Cross

Designing systems that increase access to care, mobilize support, and tell the stories behind humanitarian impact.

When I joined the British Red Cross, their digital ecosystem supported millions of people — from individuals needing mobility support to volunteers responding to crises.

However, the digital experience had grown organically over time. Services lived in silos, storytelling lacked narrative power, and critical user journeys such as wheelchair hire were fragmented.

My work focused on transforming several key experiences into a coherent digital system that could better support the organization's mission.

Across multiple initiatives — including the wheelchair hire service, the First Aid Champion learning platform, the Stories content ecosystem, and the COVID-19 response — the goal was the same: use product design to increase access to humanitarian services while strengthening the connection between the public and the organization's impact.

Strategic Insight

A humanitarian organization operates across multiple layers of engagement.

People interact with the Red Cross in very different ways:

• Someone booking a wheelchair
• A teacher using a first aid learning resource
• A donor responding to a humanitarian crisis
• A reader discovering stories of impact

Yet the digital experience treated these as separate products.

Context & Opportunity

The British Red Cross supports people across the UK through a wide range of services including emergency response, mobility aid, and first aid training.

However, the digital ecosystem presented several challenges:

These conditions created an opportunity to rethink how digital products supported both service delivery and public engagement.

Discovery

The work began with a series of research and diagnostic activities across the organization.

A few insights quickly became clear.

Service Access Was Unnecessarily Difficult

Users looking to hire a wheelchair often struggled to understand availability, collection options, or the booking process.

Stories Lacked Narrative Structure

Impact stories were presented more like blog posts than editorial narratives, limiting their ability to inspire engagement.

Teams Operated in Silos

Digital work was happening across multiple departments with limited shared product practices.

These findings led to a broader product approach: improve key services while establishing a structure that allowed the organization to continuously improve the digital experience.

Product Strategy

Instead of redesigning individual pages, we approached the work as a product ecosystem transformation.

Three strategic pillars guided the work.

1. Make Essential Services Simple and Accessible

Service journeys such as wheelchair hire were redesigned using interaction models similar to trusted e-commerce experiences.

The goal was to reduce friction and make the process intuitive for users who may already be in vulnerable situations.

2. Turn Storytelling into a Product

The Stories platform was redesigned to behave more like an editorial publication.

• Narrative-driven layouts
• New content taxonomy
• Stronger calls to action for volunteering and donations

Stories became a key bridge between humanitarian impact and public engagement.

3. Create a System for Continuous Improvement

To sustain product improvements across teams, I introduced a cross-functional initiative called Level Up.

Level Up brought together designers, developers and content teams to:

• Surface UX issues across the platform
• Prioritize improvements
• Deliver small but continuous product enhancements

This created a lightweight product operations model embedded within the organization.

Product System & Experience

The strategy translated into several key product initiatives.

Wheelchair Hire Service

The wheelchair hire experience was redesigned to behave more like a modern booking platform.

Users could clearly understand:

• Service availability
• Collection vs delivery options
• Booking steps

The interaction model drew inspiration from retail services such as Argos and Amazon, making the process familiar and predictable.

The redesigned wheelchair hire service provided a clear, e-commerce-style booking flow — allowing users to see product details, select pick-up or delivery, and complete their booking with minimal friction.

Wheelchair hire booking experience

First Aid Champion

First Aid Champion was designed as a digital learning platform for schools.

The product combined:

• Interactive learning modules
• Structured lesson flows for teachers
• Engaging visual storytelling for students

The First Aid Champion platform translated first aid training into interactive digital learning modules, combining structured objectives, video content, and group-based engagement for school audiences.

First Aid Champion — digital learning platform for schools

Stories Platform

The Stories section evolved into an editorial experience showcasing humanitarian impact.

• Immersive layouts
• Stronger narrative structure
• Integrated calls to action

Stories became a central mechanism for connecting audiences with the work of the Red Cross.

The Highlight — editorial stories hub

Grenfell Tower response — narrative storytelling

COVID-19 Digital Response

During the pandemic, digital infrastructure became critical.

We reorganized major sections of the website to create:

• A clear COVID-19 information hub
• Improved donation journeys
• More visible storytelling around emergency response

The improved experience helped support a significant increase in public engagement.

During the pandemic, we mapped the entire digital content architecture to reorganize services, help resources, and storytelling for rapid public access — ensuring critical information reached people when they needed it most.

COVID-19 response — content and service mapping

Impact

The work contributed to measurable improvements across several dimensions.

Together, these initiatives helped transform the British Red Cross digital presence from a collection of web pages into a more coherent product ecosystem.

My Contribution

As Lead Product Designer, I:

• Led discovery across service, content and fundraising teams
• Defined the strategic framing connecting services, stories and engagement
• Designed the wheelchair hire service and key user journeys
• Led the product design for the First Aid Champion platform
• Redesigned the Stories editorial experience
• Supported the organization's digital response during COVID-19
• Introduced the Level Up cross-functional initiative to embed continuous product improvement

The role required working closely with stakeholders across communications, innovation, service delivery and fundraising teams.

Key Takeaways