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CMHA North + West Vancouver

INTRODUCTION

Creating Clarity, Accessibility, and Impact for CMHA North + West Vancouver

Twelve years ago, CMHA North + West Vancouver (NWV), a branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, was providing essential services across North and West Vancouver, Bowen Island, Sunshine Coast, and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor. As a vital non-profit organization, their vision of a Canada where mental health is a universal human right and their mission to ensure all Canadians experience good mental health and well-being remained clear. However, their website was struggling to reflect these values and support the needs of their diverse audience.

The CMHA NWV team came to us with a familiar challenge: their old site was clunky, text-heavy, and difficult to navigate, especially on mobile devices—where a large portion of their visitors were coming from. Information was buried, the site looked dated, and there was little balance or hierarchy in the way content was presented. The team needed a digital presence that not only aligned with their mission but also allowed visitors to easily access crucial mental health resources.

OBJECTIVES

The primary objective was clear: create a website that serves as an accessible and welcoming space for all visitors. Our engagement with CMHA NWV centered around five key goals:

Seamless User Experience

Making it easy for visitors to find the information they need quickly and intuitively.

Clarity + Consistency

Ensuring that the site’s structure and content were aligned, easy to follow, and free of unnecessary complexity.

Differentiation

Highlighting the unique work CMHA NWV does in the community while reinforcing the values of the larger CMHA network.

Scalable Platform

Building a website that could grow with the organization’s evolving needs, without compromising on functionality or user experience.

Values + Culture

Reflecting the warmth, care, and professionalism of the organization’s mission through design and content.


Research + Discovery: Understanding the User Journey

We kicked off with a detailed research and discovery phase. Through interviews and workshops, we engaged with the team and stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of their audiences, including clients, caregivers, and community partners. Our aim was to identify the website’s user, content, functionality, technical, and authoring requirements, ensuring that the final product would meet both current and future needs.

It became clear that the website’s UX needed to minimize cognitive load. Visitors were often overwhelmed by the text-heavy design and struggled to find the information they needed. To alleviate this, we limited the top-level navigation to a maximum of eight items, streamlining the user’s decision-making process.

We prioritized user flow by making the most critical pages and actions—the ones visitors were most likely to need—easily accessible. By rethinking the site’s structure, we surfaced key resources and improved navigation both in the header and the footer, ensuring the most valuable information was never more than a click away.


Creative Direction: Unconstrained Yet Orderly

Our creative direction for the new CMHA NWV site was built on two pillars: structure and openness. We wanted the site to feel flexible and welcoming, yet grounded in an orderly design that helped users feel supported.

Drawing on CMHA NWV’s existing brand colors—blue and green—we introduced gradients and bold color blocking to guide users’ eyes and aid in navigation. These design choices, alongside a clear hierarchy of information, were aimed at creating a site that was both aesthetically pleasing and highly accessible, especially for individuals in distress who may need to find information quickly.


Technology: A Platform Built for Growth

The website was built on WordPress using a custom-made theme designed specifically to meet the unique needs of CMHA NWV. We followed atomic design principles, ensuring that every component of the site could be scaled or reused as needed. This approach allowed us to create a flexible platform that could grow with the organization without requiring a complete overhaul down the road.

We optimized the site for performance, focusing heavily on mobile responsiveness given the significant percentage of mobile visitors. The new website adheres to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements, ensuring that the site is fully accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.


RESULTS

+ 1249 % ORGANIC SEARCH

Improved SEO and content strategy drove a massive increase in organic search traffic.

+ 1,400 % NEW USERS

A user-friendly design and mobile optimization attracted significantly more new visitors.

+ 1,400 % ACTIVE USERS

Streamlined navigation and accessibility improvements kept users actively engaged on the site.

+ 912 % PAGE VIEWS

Enhanced user flow and content clarity resulted in more pages being explored and viewed.

+ 1,295 % EVENT COUNT

Improved user experience encouraged higher engagement and interaction with site events.


RESULTS

A Digital Presence That Reflects CMHA’s Values

This project was about more than fixing technical issues or updating design. It was about aligning CMHA NWV’s digital presence with the organization’s deep commitment to the mental health of the communities they serve. By building a site that is scalable, accessible, and true to the organization’s values, we’ve created a platform that will continue to support the vital work of CMHA NWV for years to come.

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