New website for Save the Children: With a focus on users
Save the Children's previous website was outdated, the content structure was very messy, and the message - what the organization actually stands for - was not conveyed well enough. Dekode was contacted, and together with the digital agency Netlife, Save the Children launched its new website on International Women's Day this year, 8 March.

Save the Children is a member-driven rights organization and has worked for children's rights since 1919. The organization is politically and religiously neutral, and works for long-term and sustainable change in 122 countries. In Norway, Save the Children is represented through volunteers, local groups or regional offices, and fights for all children to have their rights fulfilled.
- The website had grown so big that I was losing track," says Anne Bleiklie. She is the digital media editor at Save the Children and has worked for the organization for six years. In the initial stages of the project, Bleiklie was the organization's project manager in collaboration with Dekode and Netlife, and was hands-on in everything from planning and strategy to insight and content publishing.
According to the web editor, the need for a new web solution was urgent.
Over 60 choices on the front page
- "We had a website structure that largely reflected the entire scope of the organization - more than the actual user needs. On the front page alone, there were over 60 different links. In other words, it was very cluttered and we had to skip over remnants of the previous website solution. There was therefore a need to start from scratch," says Bleiklie.

Save the Children is a complex organization, with both political and educational goals - in addition to recruitment and fundraising campaigns. Therefore, the target group consists of companies, private individuals and children. This places some demands on the content of the website.
- Dekode and Netlife have helped us with cleaning up, mapping user needs and content strategy, which has meant that we now have a more focused message. We need to work for what's important to users - not for those who work at Save the Children," says Bleiklie.
Strong forces internally wanted an easy-to-understand and familiar user interface, and this became a main argument for choosing a new website platform. And on WordPress, Dekode is the best.
Anne Bleiklie, web editor at Save the Children
With complementary expertise, Dekode and communications agency Netlife chose to collaborate on the project. The latter delivered the content strategy, working according to the "core model" - a practical tool for interdisciplinary content design, which helps define what content the user needs.
Recruitment school
- “Save the Children worked for a long time on the core model to find out what should be communicated. Those in the organization who work with children in Norway, for example, started at the bottom and went through a kind of ‘recruit school’: They took a thorough approach, produced content from scratch, reviewed with a critical eye and found the core pages. They did the same with the other topics that are most important to Save the Children," says Marius Granholt, advisor at Save the Children. Dekode.
Granholt goes on to say that they have also worked extensively with "call to actions", and praises Save the Children's efforts in gathering a good analytical basis,
- "Save the Children has a strong brand, so we didn't change anything about the concept in this project. It was more about the organization needing to formulate itself more clearly, clarify concepts (individual donor / donor / sponsor etc), and focus more on issues and the results of the work they do. It was therefore an important prerequisite to emphasize that the money donated to Save the Children is actually visible and shown in graphics on the website," says Granholt.

Ease of understanding is crucial when choosing a partner
Strong forces internally wanted an easy-to-understand and familiar user interface, and this became a main argument for choosing a new website platform. In the end, the choice fell on WordPress.
- And when it comes to WordPress, Dekode is the best," says Bleiklie when asked why Dekode was chosen as a digital partner. She explains that WordPress is known for having a simple user interface, which many in the organization thought was a good fit, as Save the Children has many employees who are not as experienced CMS users.
- More people can go in and do things. "Before the new website, there were only a few of us who could edit and publish. Now there are many more of us, and because there are more people who master the back-end and can make ongoing changes, we can now prioritize the slightly more "nerdy" tasks, such as insight and optimization, universal design and SEO. We had less time for that before.
Developing what works
"Even though the old version of the website needed a spring clean, there were some features that Dekode chose to preserve," says Marius Granholt.
- One feature we chose to keep and further develop was "Petition", a subpage where you - with just a few mouse clicks - can navigate your way to a petition you care about and which you can sign. The feature wasn't already on WordPress, so we had to create it from the ground up. The donor form on the website wasn't too bad either, so we kept the structure, and just made some changes to how the form is used in the context of the rest of the website," says Granholt.
It was about the organization needing to articulate itself more clearly, clarify concepts and focus more on the results of the work they do.
Marius Granholt, advisor at Dekode
When developing websites, Dekode usesthe Growth Driven Design method. In short, the method is based on getting a functioning website up and running as quickly as possible, and then using real user data to constantly improve the solution. User testing is an important part of the approach and was also used in the project with Save the Children.
- We worked extensively with the menu structure, which was user-tested throughout the project. To see if users actually found what they were looking for, we used something called a "treejack" test. The speed, or how quickly the users found the content, was not important, the most important thing is that they got there. If the terms and content are too broad and people can't find what they're looking for, they quickly click on "About us"," says Granholt.
Appears more logical
Now the website has been launched, the organization has received the tools it needs for further operations, and Bleiklie hopes the users of reddbarna.no notice a big difference.
- We received a lot of criticism that people couldn't find what they were looking for on our website. Now we've done a lot of work on navigation, the menu and user testing. Most things appear more logical, and I think we are better able to show what Save the Children actually does. Before, we were too focused on the problems without actually telling what the organization is doing to solve them," says Anne Bleiklie, and emphasizes.
- The approach to the development of our website is now user-focused and insight-based. I hope that members and volunteers see that we now have a better rig and that it is easier to find the information they are looking for.
Does your organization need new web solutions? Contact us at [email protected].