In life-threatening situations, every second counts. That’s why The Air Ambulance Services (TAAS) is so vital – but it comes at a cost.
TAAS operates the only dedicated children’s air ambulance transfer service in the country, plus two regional air ambulances, Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance. They need around £8.5m each year, to run all three services, yet receive no government funding. As they are entirely reliant on voluntary donations, public engagement is paramount.
The brief
Our role was to create a new website for TAAS which would help connect the service with its supporters, acting as a hub for those all-important pledges of financial and voluntary support.
The website needed to showcase each of the three services and allow supporters to make donations online.
Our approach
Our starting point was a review of the air ambulance brand as this would inform the design of the overall website. The brand is well-established and recognised, so we introduced some simple changes to bring it up-to-date. This led to a particularly striking design for the new home page, which communicates in an emotive way what TAAS is all about and why donor support is so vital.
Throughout the site the visitor is drawn to real-life stories, campaigns and information about getting involved in supporting TAAS. There is a sleek, secure donation mechanism, making it easy for visitors to pledge support.
One of the most complex aspects of this project was the structure and navigation of the site. We worked closely with the client to determine the best way to arrange the various pages and to design the visitors’ logical journey through the site.
Because TAAS runs three services, it was important to ensure each looked distinct, yet part of the TAAS ‘family’. We therefore introduced a uniform design across all three services, but distinguished each with its own dominant colour scheme to help the visitor navigate more easily.
Our copywriter helped to organise and prepare the content for each page and our design team developed additional infographics to help communicate the history of TAAS in an engaging way. We even added an animated helicopter to the footer area as a light-hearted yet relevant and memorable feature.
From the outset, we worked alongside the client to project manage delivery, ensuring all team members, from designers to developers and copywriters, co-ordinated effectively for a timely launch of the site.
“Since launch, the average time spent by visitors on the new website has doubled.”
What the Client Says:
“Working with Ultimate has been a real pleasure. They have been informative, patient and the quality of their work has been excellent. They have a fantastic team and we are looking forward to continuing to work with them.” Ben Freeman – Digital Marketing Manager
What we say:
“It was a privilege to be chosen to develop a new website for The Air Ambulance Service – it’s such a fantastic organisation.” Amy Townsend – Director.