A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL FOR STAFF AND SERVICE USERS WHEN THE EXISTING ONE STOPPED REACHING THEM.

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Work > Orchardville

The Orchardville Society supports people living with disabilities across Northern Ireland, delivering services, advocacy, employment support and community integration. Their work is built on the relationship between the organisation, its staff and the service users who rely on them.

That relationship depends on communication. And in 2020, communication was the thing that broke down.

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THE PROBLEM

Orchardville first floated the idea of an app in 2019 and shelved it. The case wasn't strong enough at the time. Then COVID-19 arrived, and a quiet operational issue became a critical one almost overnight.

Responsive Design

Most service users didn't have a desktop or laptop. They had a smartphone. The Orchardville website wasn't designed for mobile, so the place where official information lived was effectively out of reach for the people who needed it most.
Communication

Internal communication ran through a shared email inbox accessed at desk-bound office computers. As soon as staff weren't in the office, that inbox stopped functioning as a communication channel.
Sensitive Information

Public-facing news and internal-only updates flowed through the same channels with no way to separate them. Sensitive information meant for staff or specific service users couldn't be shared without risking it going further than intended.
Critical Messages

When circumstances changed quickly, which during COVID they did constantly, there was no way to get a message out that would actually reach people in time.
Technical Support

Updating content depended on technical support. The team that needed to communicate didn't have direct control of how communication happened.

WHAT WE BUILT

What Orchardville needed wasn't a website refresh. They needed a communication channel that reached the device people actually used, separated public information from private, and put control of what got said and when in the hands of the people doing the work.

A mobile-first communication platform with a CMS behind it, designed around how Orchardville and their service users actually operate.

01. A cross-platform mobile app for iOS and Android.

Service users, staff and the public can access news, events and updates on the device they're already carrying, with content tailored to who they are.
02. Public and private content streams.

Anyone who downloads the app can see public news. Private content, including staff updates and service-user-specific communications, sits behind a login. Credentials are issued by Orchardville's administrators, so the right information reaches the right audience without leaking anywhere it shouldn't.
03. A bespoke CMS.

Orchardville's team can create news stories with text, video, imagery and links, control whether each piece of content is public or private, manage user accounts, and publish without needing to involve a developer for every update. They own their communication.
04. Push notifications, for effective communication.

Targeted alerts go to specific user groups when something is genuinely time-sensitive. Staff find out about changes in real time rather than at their desk the next morning. Service users get the updates relevant to them without being buried in everything else.
05. An accessible interface.

Built for varying levels of digital confidence and a range of accessibility needs, with the simplicity and clarity that Orchardville's brand and audience both call for.

WHAT CHANGED

01.

Service users now access news, events and updates on the device most of them actually use

02.

Staff communication moved off a desk-bound shared email inbox and onto something that works wherever they are

03.

Sensitive and internal updates can now be shared securely with the people they're meant for, without leaking to a wider audience

04.

Time-sensitive information gets to the right people in real time rather than whenever they next sit down at a desk

05.

Orchardville's team can publish, update and manage their own content without depending on technical support

06.

The platform is now central to how Orchardville stays in contact with its community.

WHY IT WORKED

The 2019 conversation didn't go anywhere because there wasn't enough pressure on the existing way of working.

By 2020, the pressure was real. The staff couldn't get to the office. Service users couldn't be reached on a desktop website. A group inbox stopped being a communication system the moment people stopped sitting beside it.

What we didn't do was rebuild Orchardville's website or replace anything that was still working. We focused on the actual problem, which was reach. The platform we built reaches the device people are already holding, separates the conversations that need separating, and gives the team direct control over the communication that holds their service together. It's a small platform with a clear job. That's why it works.