Save the children

Most people already know of Save the Children – which has fought for children’s rights all over the world since 1919. Save the Children’s work and importance over its 100-year history is – for want of a still more powerful word – enormous. So it was with both pride and humility that we accepted an assignment to work with Save the Children in Sweden to create their new site.

Save the Children’s previous website needed a facelift, both in terms of the underlying technology and visual design. The ambitious goal for the new site was to achieve a clear increase in conversions.

Even though Save the Children’s activities differ in many ways from those of commercial businesses, the approach to creating a new website is largely the same. It's a simple equation – the more money the charity receives in donations, the more Save the Children can achieve. And to achieve this, it’s important to design user experiences that mean visitors take action and make a donation.

A cross-functional team was created to work with product owners and web editors within Save the Children to develop a concept and design that supported the established goals.

This was among the most prestigious assignments I’ve ever worked on – if not the most prestigious. I'm thrilled with what we’ve achieved together. We’ve created an emotionally impactful site with strong UX design. And of course it adds an extra dimension when you’re happy with the results of such a meaningful assignment.

Thomas Krebs, Art Director Valtech

To better understand Save the Children’s activities and minimise lost time, Valtech recommended working in close collaboration with the charity. To achieve this, Valtech provided office space for product owners and web editors from Save the Children, which streamlined the entire process.

In parallel with the graphic design, the team took a data-driven approach to web analysis, testing and optimisation. It was important to analyse the aspects of the existing site that worked, in order to incorporate these into the new räddabarnen.se site. One of the tools the team used was Google Analytics, to see how different parts of the site performed.

Save the Children’s presence during the project resulted in a close-knit team with open and friendly communication. It reduced misunderstandings and made the work more efficient. We were extremely satisfied when the new site was launched, says Victor Nordh, a developer on the project team.

The updated website, räddabarnen.se, earned a top design award – silver in the 2018 Swedish Design Awards.

The site also won Best Lead Generation and Nurturing in the 2019 Optimizely (Episerver) Web Awards.

From the moment you land on Rädda Barnen’s (Save the Children’s) website, the user experience is friction free, with clear and informative calls-to-action throughout the site. Serving a vital purpose, this organization uses its website to make a difference every single day. 

- Optimizely (Episerver) 

The work of Valtech and the project team doesn’t end with the launch of the site. The collaboration is ongoing, and as a digital partner of Save the Children, Valtech works continuously with development, analysis and optimisation. For example, we have carried out an SEO and content improvement process that has resulted in increased organic traffic and better ranking.

The team continues to work closely with Save the Children, and the office space for their employees remains – this is a necessity for a forward-looking and results-driven collaboration. Together we work with both large and small aspects of development, and ideas from both the Valtech team and Save the Children are incorporated. 

Those of us working with Save the Children’s website work very closely with the team at Valtech, and we often function as a single large, unified team. We have a close collaboration where we learn from each other, and we’re all really keen to do a good job.

- Karin Sellin, product owner Save the children Sweden