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Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

A clearer website for legal support and trusted information

Technical development of an accessible, content-led service website, working closely with Sail Creative.

Type
Website
Context

An important service tool for people looking for legal support and reliable information.

Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit has supported people subject to immigration control for more than 35 years.

People may arrive on the website looking for urgent legal advice, support during a crisis, or clear information about complicated immigration processes. The site needed to help them find the right route without adding to the pressure they were already under.

Demand for GMIAU’s services is higher than ever and its capacity to take on new clients is limited. Reliable self-help information therefore needed to sit alongside clear routes to direct support.

Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit website homepage
The challenge

Making a substantial and sensitive collection of services and information easier to navigate.

Give visitors clear routes to legal advice, information and practical self-help resources.

Support vulnerable users who may be under pressure or dealing with a crisis.

Keep a large mix of existing and new content understandable across devices.

Make accessibility, clarity, navigation and performance central to the experience.

Help people access reliable information independently when direct support is unavailable.

Give GMIAU a manageable platform that can continue to grow with its work.

What we built

A flexible, content-driven website organised around what visitors need to do.

Task-led navigation

Navigation and page structures prioritise the help and information visitors are trying to find rather than reflecting internal organisational structures.

Structured resources

Clear content routes bring together immigration advice, homelessness and crisis support, children and young people, domestic abuse and Windrush resources.

Reusable components

Flexible components support services, self-help guidance, professional resources, stories, campaigns, training and impact reporting without forcing every page into one pattern.

Responsive implementation

The interface translates Sail’s designs across screen sizes while retaining their character, hierarchy and detail.

Accessible interactions

Navigation, content presentation and interface behaviour were developed with a broad range of users, devices and access needs in mind.

Practical content management

GMIAU’s team can maintain resources, news, campaigns, training information and guidance as its services and community needs change.

Visitor journeys

Clear starting points for people arriving with different needs.

  1. Get legal advice
  2. Find trusted information
  3. Use self-help resources
  4. Access professional resources
  5. Make a referral
  6. Support GMIAU’s work
Working with Sail Creative

Design and development worked as one collaborative process.

Sail Creative led the visual identity, experience and creative direction for the new site. Askew Brook worked closely with their team throughout the technical build rather than receiving a set of finished designs in isolation.

Together, we resolved responsive behaviour, content structures and reusable components while retaining the character and detail of Sail’s work in the finished website.

That close relationship helped the design respond to the realities of a substantial content-led service, and helped the build stay true to the experience Sail had shaped.

Sail Creative led the design and creative direction. Askew Brook delivered the technical development.

Visual identity Responsive behaviour Content structures Reusable components
Outcome

A significantly clearer digital home without losing sight of the people coming to the site for help.

Clearer routes to support

Legal advice, referral routes and important information are easier to locate and understand.

Independent access to resources

People can find a growing body of reliable self-help guidance when direct support is not available.

One connected content platform

Resources, campaigns, news, training, impact information and donation journeys sit within one coherent website.

A platform that can grow

GMIAU’s team can continue publishing and developing the site as its work and community needs change.

Supporting media

Resource-led publishing and donation journeys within the wider website.

GMIAU publications listing
GMIAU donation page
Project credits Visit the GMIAU website →
Design and creative direction
Sail Creative
Technical development
Askew Brook
Photography
Ingrid Turner
Client
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

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