Volunteer East Lothian
Volunteer East Lothian — formerly known as Strive — sits at the heart of third sector activity across East Lothian, connecting volunteers with organisations, supporting community groups and championing the broader role of volunteering in local life.
When they came to us, the organisation was at a significant moment of change. A new name. A new domain. A repositioning of their role within the community. And a website that had quietly become one of the biggest barriers between the organisation and the people it existed to serve.
The brief covered both the visual identity and the digital platform — a rebrand and a complete rebuild, running in parallel, during a period when the organisation itself was evolving.
Starting with the brand
The new identity needed to do something specific: feel welcoming and accessible to a wide range of audiences — volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, local organisations, community groups and third sector partners — while also communicating the breadth and structure of what Volunteer East Lothian actually does.
Three creative directions were explored before the final identity emerged. The chosen direction draws its inspiration from the East Lothian landscape and coastline — the surrounding countryside that gives the region much of its character. It's a visual reference that feels genuinely rooted in place without being literal or obvious about it.
The most considered element of the identity system is its use of colour. Rather than a single brand palette applied uniformly across everything, bold colour groupings were developed to distinguish the different areas of the organisation's work: Support, Volunteering, Organisations and the Third Sector. That distinction carries through the website, into print materials and across communications — giving different audiences a clear visual signal about what's relevant to them, without requiring them to read their way to the right place.
The identity extended across promotional materials, window signage, flyers and banners. Staff and volunteers received branded lanyards — a small detail, but one that matters when an organisation's visibility within its own community is part of what it needs to build.
Words from the client
“It was an absolute delight to work with Sarah to re-brand our organisation. We had an existing website that was outdated, not functioning and not performing for us. The website is now easy to navigate and looks fresh and up to date with our new branding. Cannot recommend Sarah highly enough — brilliant!”
The website: what we inherited
The previous website had accumulated years of content without the structure to support it. Information was difficult to find, user journeys were unclear and the backend had become unwieldy for the administrators responsible for keeping it up to date. For an organisation whose entire purpose is connecting people with opportunities and support, a website that made that connection difficult was a significant problem.
Critically, this wasn't a site we'd only build once. We've since returned to redevelop it more substantially as the organisation has grown — responding to new needs, new audiences and a more complex range of services than existed at the original launch. What follows reflects the fuller picture of that ongoing work.
Research before redesign
The rebuild was grounded in user research rather than assumption. We conducted content audits to identify what was genuinely useful and what was creating noise. User interviews gave us direct insight into how different audiences — volunteers, organisations, administrators — were trying to use the site and where they were getting stuck.
Card sorting workshops helped us understand how users naturally grouped and categorised information, which informed the navigation architecture. Tree testing allowed us to validate that structure before a single page was designed — testing whether users could actually find what they were looking for within the proposed framework, and refining it where they couldn't.
That research process takes time. It also tends to produce better outcomes than designing on instinct and discovering the problems later.
What the restructure addressed
The content audit narrowed and sharpened the site's offering considerably — removing what wasn't earning its place and rewriting what remained to be more relevant and useful to the people actually reading it.
The colour system developed during the rebrand was carried directly into the website, giving the four areas of the organisation's work a consistent visual identity across digital and print. Colour-coded navigation, section headers and content elements mean a user arriving at the site with a specific need can orient themselves quickly, without having to work through content that isn't relevant to them.
Complex user journeys were simplified throughout. The improvement to engagement on the site since the restructure reflects what happens when navigation is genuinely clarified rather than just reorganised.
Backend efficiencies were a significant part of the brief too, and one that's easy to overlook in a project like this. The administrators managing large volumes of directory content, news and organisational information needed a platform that worked for them as well as for visitors. Forms allow community members to submit news and stories directly, which the team can review and publish without technical complexity. Content management is genuinely manageable — which means the site stays current.
A platform built to grow
One of the more important decisions made during the rebuild was prioritising flexibility. Volunteer East Lothian is a growing organisation operating in a sector that changes — new funding streams, new initiatives, new partners. A platform that requires external support every time something needs to evolve isn't fit for that context.
The current site gives the team full editorial control. They can add and update content, publish news, manage the directory and respond to organisational changes without developer involvement. The structure is solid enough to support growth without requiring a rebuild every time the organisation takes a new direction.
What it represents
For a third sector organisation, a digital platform that genuinely works for its audiences is a material part of its ability to fulfil its purpose. Volunteer East Lothian's website is now a functioning hub for volunteering and community activity across the region — accessible, navigable and built around the needs of the people using it.
The rebrand gave the organisation a visual identity that reflects its repositioned role within East Lothian. The website gives it the tools to fulfil that role day to day. Together, they've given Volunteer East Lothian a foundation that's held up as the organisation has grown — and one that's designed to keep doing so.
If you’re a third sector organisation looking to rebrand or redevelop your website then we’d love to discuss the opportunity with you.
