Redefining digital transformation
Since 2012, Craftzing has guided the digital transformation of Kom op tegen Kanker (KOTK), the nonprofit advocating for a better cancer plan, as its strategic, service, and UX design partner.
Two projects show that partnership: allesoverkanker.be, an information platform on cancer, and the "Gebruikerszone," which brings KOTK's digital touchpoints together.
The story below zooms in on allesoverkanker.be, with the Gebruikerszone covered in the other case study.
The challenge: ensure users find the right information on the "Wikipedia of cancer"
With allesoverkanker.be, Kom op tegen Kanker informs people about cancer and supports people (and their loved ones) who are suffering from it. The platform shares medical knowledge in an accessible, human and understandable way, alongside practical tips on the financial, professional and personal consequences of the disease. In addition, patient stories are shared, helping patients feel understood rather than just informed.
After seven years, that website was due for renewal, both functionally and technically. With several thousand pages of content, the site had become genuinely difficult to navigate. The question Kom op tegen Kanker brought to Craftzing cut right to the core of the problem: how do you build an organised website where users can quickly find the right information, when your website is effectively the Wikipedia of cancer?
The solution: providing information at a user’s own pace
The renewed allesoverkanker.be gives information seekers, cancer patients and their loved ones a place to process difficult, jargon-heavy information at their own pace, covering both medical and practical matters, while also offering mental support through stories, tips, support groups and activities.
Brecht Desplenter, Communication Expert at Kom op tegen Kanker, noted that after years of working with Craftzing, the organisation trusted its lead in moving away from hierarchical navigation, and now receives compliments from all sides praising how much more user-friendly the site has become compared to its previous version. The renewal lets visitors reach the information and support they need more easily and faster than before, reinforcing Kom op tegen Kanker's role as a reliable expert and information source on the disease.
The approach: forward navigation, built on real user behaviour
One of the biggest challenges in the conceptual development of the website was the large amount of content and the search for a way to structure all that information. That's why we gladly took on an extensive revision of the existing information architecture.
After sharpening the expectations at stake, Craftzing built a first conceptual model of the required content types and reworked the site's information architecture, moving away from a heavy hierarchical navigation toward "forward navigation”. This navigation type consists of a concentric, intuitive flow which is better suited to a content-rich site like this one.
The decision to change the navigation type was grounded in how people actually used the site. Validation tests confirmed that most visitors were arriving by searching for a specific type of cancer rather than starting from the homepage. Hence, the team designed a dedicated landing page for each cancer type. Those pages then translated into wireframes and, eventually, templates for both the cancer-type pages and their detail pages, deliberately linking the informative and the more supportive "living with cancer" content at the right moments to reinforce each other.
Because allesoverkanker.be is frequently visited by people with medical or physical disabilities, accessibility was treated as a priority throughout rather than an afterthought. For technical jargon, this meant definitions were built directly into the page itself so readers never have to leave a particular page to look up explanations elsewhere. In addition, wireframes were tested extensively with end users, and an external party ran an accessibility audit at multiple stages of the project.
Craftzing carried the project through the full UX design, and the collaboration continued from there: together, Craftzing and KOTK wrote the specification used to find the right partner for UI design and development.
After years of working with Craftzing, we trusted their lead in moving away from hierarchical navigation. Now we receive compliments from all corners, lauding the enhanced user-friendliness of the website compared to its previous version.
