Moray Women's Aid

The Charity

Moray Women’s Aid has supported women, children and young people who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse since 1987. It works across every part of Moray, and its support is free, confidential and non-judgemental.

Its services include refuge and dispersed accommodation, one-to-one emotional and practical support, advocacy, counselling, group work, and a dedicated service for children and young people aged 5 to 18.

The Challenge

Someone looking at this website may be in danger, and may be worried that the person hurting them can see what they look at. The site had to feel calm and reassuring, keep help in view on every page, and let anyone leave it in an instant, while still explaining every service clearly.

• A quick, discreet way to leave the site at any moment
• The helpline and emergency advice always in view
• Clear information on every service, for adults and for children and young people
• Easy to read and use for everyone, including people with dyslexia and people whose first language isn’t English
• Simple for the team to keep up to date themselves

The Solution

I designed and built a new website from scratch, with warm, soft colours, Fraunces headings and Figtree for the text, so it feels welcoming rather than clinical.

Safety comes first on every page.

• A red Exit website button on every page, which immediately swaps to a neutral website and opens an unrelated one in a new tab. Pressing Esc twice does the same
• A guide to using the website safely, including private browsing and clearing your history
• The helpline, opening hours and 999 advice at the top of every page, with a “Need to talk?” panel alongside the content
• An Accessibility panel with bigger text, line spacing, a dyslexia-friendly font, high-contrast and greyscale displays, a reading mask and more, remembered on each device
• A Translate option with more than 30 languages, from Polish and Romanian to Arabic, Urdu and Scottish Gaelic
• A page for each service, plus information on recognising abuse, safety planning, and support for LGBT people and for men
• News and events, vacancies, and ways to donate and get involved
• An admin area where the team can edit pages, post news and events, change the homepage and see visitor numbers

The outcome

The new site gives women in Moray a calm, discreet place to find help, with the helpline and a way out never more than a tap away.

Each service has a clear page of its own, so women, young people and the professionals who refer them can quickly see what support is there and how to get in touch, and the team can keep it all up to date themselves.

Screens from the site