Dell unlocks global expertise to support the Cancer Awareness Trust
January kick starts the tech development journey for The Cancer Platform. Whilst we continue to raise the funds needed to develop our in-house tech team, our incredible partners around the world are stepping in to support us to help develop the next stage of our platform - a large searchable cancer inspiration directory!
The searchable Inspiration Directory will go live in the coming months after we’ve tested it with our user groups (people living with cancer) and will be the next step of our testing on user experience, language, accessibility and assurance models, ahead of the launch of the much more extensive AI powered global platform later this year.
One of the many organisations helping us on this journey is Dell Technologies. In January, colleagues from across Dell, from Egypt, Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and the UK joined together over two half-day workshops to help shape the design and direction of our searchable inspiration directory. This was delivered through Dell’s Pro Bono Workshop offer for charities - which we’d highly recommend other cancer charities apply for!
The Dell team worked with us to review the user journey and to explore how we apply the right tech tools to prompt a users search journey, accounting for the many ways people like to search for and be presented with information and tackle the challenges of language, design and the flow of a search function. We studied other search platforms outside the cancer space to serve as inspiration, everything from the Lego store to Medium.com - all of which have led to new features being built into our initial search function.
The outcome of the two days of workshops and incredible input from Dell’s experts is a detailed design and build brief for our tech partners who are now creating the first full version of our searchable Inspiration Directory, ready to load on the current website in February/March (subject to testing and assurance measures being met). Throughout February, our partners and over 100 people living with cancer will test and further inform the design of this before it goes live.
Our huge thanks to the Dell team for their time, energy and practical support. We look forward to working with the Dell team again and you’ll all see the outcome of their incredible input when the new directory goes live.
To find out more about the Dell Pro Bono programme check out their website here.
Special thank you to Angel Spasov at Pyxera Global for organising the engagement with the Dell EMEA Pro Bono team.