The Big Issue want to create a better tomorrow. To do this, the next set of generations must be considered in the form of government policies. Lord Bird, the Big Issue’s founder, created a Future Generations bill which set out to address just this.
The Brief
A responsive, easy-to-use, web-tool (Today 4 Tomorrow) that allows users to email their local MPs, asking for their pledge to support Lord Bird’s bill. This tool would be an essential component for the Big Issue’s digital campaign, in order to engage, inform and mobilise the public.
We had very little lead time; only two weeks to define, design and develop this key web-tool.
The Client
We met with the Big Issue to quickly define the objectives of the project. Their mission was to grow their supporter base and encourage said supporters to put pressure on their MPs.
The Big Issue are UK’s number one street paper and social enterprise, giving people who are experiencing homelessness or who are vulnerably housed a hand up. Their Big Futures campaign is focussed on breaking the cycle of poverty, aiming to protect young people and future generations from harmful systemic issues we see play out every day.
Our Solution
Two weeks is not much time, especially when designing and developing a tool for a wide array of different user types. We knew we had to act quickly, so taking an Agile approach we decided to create something that was good enough for now, safe enough to try, with the mindset that we could always iterate later.
Usability and simplicity were essential here, so we knew what to prioritise this. Users would likely lose patience and not bother contacting their MPs if the call-to-action (CTA) were not easy for them to carry out.
Our aim was to keep the content short, the CTA large and the number of steps minimal. So like all good campaign sites, we put the key ask on the Homepage and made the steps easy to complete.
Users first had to find their local MPs, which they could do using their postcode. Once found, they could choose to either send the pre-written email (drafted by the Big Issue) or make any amends they liked before sending.
The Tech
Using our Starter Project, we were able to create the WordPress environment needed (both back and front end environments), quickly. We created simple user journeys and applied the Big Futures branding to get the tool looking spick and span, in time for the hard deadline where the bill would be presented in the House of Lords.
