Preserving the Past, Designing for the Future

Transforming Digital Engagement for the National Trust for Scotland

Client
The National Trust for Scotland

My role
UX designer

Output
Website

Deliverables
Research, User testing, UX

In partnership with the National Trust for Scotland, we delivered a fast, accessible, and emotionally resonant digital experience that reflects the Trust’s mission to protect Scotland’s heritage for future generations. Across two phases, we restructured the site architecture, improved user journeys, and introduced new ways to Visit, Join, and Donate: driving engagement, increasing conversions, and showcasing the Trust’s evolving brand.

The Problem

A fragmented experience for a modern audience

The Trust’s digital presence was struggling to meet the needs of a younger, more digitally focused audience. Years of organic growth had resulted in inconsistent property information and a network of disconnected microsites, with individual places effectively operating in isolation rather than as part of a unified charity experience. This fragmentation made it difficult for users to understand the scale of the Trust’s work, its charitable purpose, and how they could meaningfully engage or contribute.

The existing site was:

Slow and difficult to navigate.
Fragmented across microsites and outdated structures.
Burdened by technical debt that limited performance, scalability and future development.
Inconsistent in content quality, tone and depth across different places.
Visually disjointed, lacking a cohesive design system to unify the Trust’s digital presence.
Aged in look and feel, reducing its appeal to younger, digitally native audiences.
Unclear in its messaging, failing to consistently communicate the Trust’s role and impact as a charity.
Lacking clarity in how users could engage with the Trust’s work.

In Phase 2, the challenge evolved:
The Trust wanted to drive deeper engagement across three key areas: Visit, Join, and Donate (VMD) ensuring all demographics could see the value of interacting with the organisation.

The solution

A unified, user-first platform with purpose-driven journeys

We delivered a fast, responsive site that:

Showcases the Trust’s broad and vital work.
Supports seamless content management and CRM integration.
Introduced digital membership and donation journeys for the first time, providing clear, intuitive pathways for users to explore, join, and contribute.

In Phase 2, we enhanced the VMD sections with:

Rich editorial-style content to promote activities and appeals.
Enhanced and optimised membership and donation flows to improve usability and conversion.
SEO-optimised templates to drive traffic and improve discoverability.

Impact and results

The transformation delivered a connected, end-to-end experience that aligned the Trust’s digital presence with its real-world places, enabling the organisation to operate as a single, joined-up charity.

Created a seamless journey from digital discovery to real-world engagement, helping users move effortlessly from learning about the Trust’s work to visiting places, becoming members, or supporting through donations.
Unified previously disconnected digital touchpoints into a single platform, reducing fragmentation and ensuring a consistent experience across properties, campaigns and content.
Enabled the Trust to view user behaviour, interactions, membership and donation data in one place, providing a clear, organisation-wide understanding of how audiences engage across sites, campaigns and locations.
Introduced centrally managed digital membership and donation journeys, allowing member and donor relationships to be understood and nurtured across multiple places rather than in isolation.
Strengthened the Trust’s ability to run coordinated campaigns, measure impact, and make data-informed decisions, while still supporting the individuality of each place.
Repositioned the Trust as a modern, accessible charity, better equipped to engage younger audiences and build long-term relationships beyond a single visit.

Phase 2 Outcomes:

Visit: “Things to do” pages created rich, editorial-style content, driving 170,000+ users in 10 months.
Join: Streamlined membership flows and FAQs reduced user confusion by 48%.
Donate: New appeal templates and donation pathways increased donations by 14%, to the Trust’s four core themes.

A modern platform for a modern mission

31.7%

increase in users

33.3%

increase in sessions

10.7%

reduction in bounce rate

THE PROCESS

Discovery and research

Phase 1

Audited a complex, bloated, inconsistent information architecture and microsite network.
Conducted multiple rounds of user testing including card sorting and tree testing.
Developed and validated user personas to understand how different audiences engaged with the charity, identifying which messages and areas of its wide-ranging work resonated most with each group.
Collaborated with teams across the Trust’s many sites to capture local nuance and operational needs, ensuring each place’s uniqueness was reflected within a unified digital framework.
Planned CRM-integrated membership and donation journeys, defining data, flows and touchpoints required to digitise join and donate experiences at scale.
Mapped user flows and identified optimal content placement and presentation.

Phase 2

Analysed site data to identify bounce rates, session durations, and interaction drop-offs.
Ran stakeholder workshops to gather business needs and pain points.
Conducted user interviews to validate issues and prioritise improvements.
Created an effort vs. ROI matrix to guide development priorities.