Websites

Young Carers' Network

Visit their website www.youngcarersnetwork.org.uk

Brief

Young Carers' Network (YCN) provides activities and support to children and young people with caring responsibilities in East Dunbartonshire.

The young people who use the service help to manage it as well. They wanted to be involved in the process of designing their website, and to have a say in what content and features it had, within their budget.

Tasks and outcomes

We designed a framework of questions for the group to use in a session which formed our brief for the project. We then produced an online 'wireframe' prototype for the site, and visuals using their graphic identity which had been designed by a network member. These were reviewed by the group and given the OK.

A video previously made by YCN members was included on the site; this features some of the young carers describing their lives and how the project had changed things for them. We added a description and transcript to make the video more accessible. Screen grabs from the video were used to provide images for the site.

The group also wanted some kind of online discussion or chat facility, so we came up with some options and a phpBB discussion forum was chosen. We installed this as a members-only facility and integrated it with the site.