A safe space for family advice.

Family Lives was established over four decades ago by volunteers dedicated to providing a safe space for parents before they reach crisis point. They support families dealing with challenges such as relationship breakdowns, behavioural issues, financial difficulties, and emotional wellbeing. We are collaborating with them to create a new online platform that furthers their mission of building stronger family lives.

Family Lives approached Arch to enhance their digital presence, which was primarily centred around their main website. In response to evolving user needs and preferences, it was decided that a complete website redesign was necessary. The focus was on improved signposting to key resources and an updated, user-friendly design that makes it easier for families to navigate and access the support they need.

A key focus was creating a platform capable of recommending relevant content to users. Given the sensitive nature of the material, it was essential that content suggestions were:

1. Applicable to the user's query.
2. Tailored to the correct demographic profile.
   

While traditional content surfacing promotes popular, highly viewed content, we developed a smarter algorithm that weights recommendations based on user interactions. This approach uses anonymous browsing data to suggest relevant content, functioning similarly to a secure "users who read this also read" model:

1. A user views content "A" (e.g., a blog, report, or video).
2. Anonymous data suggests that ~20% of users who viewed "A" also viewed content "B."
3. Content "B" is presented at the bottom of the current content or after the completion of a video.
4. Further suggestions ("C") are based on user engagement during their session, following key rules:
5. • If a user spends less than a set time on a page, the content is deemed irrelevant.
   • Previously viewed content is not suggested again.
     

This algorithm keeps recommendations anonymous and relevant, and it respects privacy. The result is an adaptive platform that supports users with timely content suited to their needs.