Civic Trust · 2025
A public service site that works on a decade-old phone
An accessibility-led rebuild of a benefits guidance service, designed against the constraints its users actually face rather than the ones the team assumed.
- WCAG 2.2 on core guidance journeys
- AAA
- Time to interactive on reference device
- 1.4s
- Applications completed without help
- +63%
Where it started
Civic Trust guides people through benefit applications at the point they are most stressed and least equipped. The previous site assumed a modern phone, a stable connection and a comfortable reading level. A quarter of sessions never reached the guidance at all.
What we did about it
- 1
Design for the hardest session
The reference case was an eight-year-old Android on a congested mobile network, one-handed, in a queue. Every page had to be usable and complete under those conditions before it could ship.
- 2
Cut the reading level, not the substance
Guidance was rewritten to a reading age of nine without removing detail, using shorter sentences and concrete nouns. Legal accuracy was preserved by having each page reviewed by the caseworkers who answer the phone.
- 3
Make it work without JavaScript
Every task, including the eligibility checker, completes with server-rendered forms alone. JavaScript improves the experience where it loads and is never required to finish anything.
What changed
Caseworker phone time dropped enough to fund two additional advisers, and the service was cited as an accessibility reference by two partner organisations.
- WCAG 2.2 on core guidance journeys
- AAA
- Time to interactive on reference device
- 1.4s
- Applications completed without help
- +63%
“They tested on the phone our users actually hold, in the conditions they actually use it. Nobody had done that before, and it changed every decision.”
