Nationwide – Improving accessibility and help journeys for online banking customers
The challenge
Nationwide was relaunching its website and needed to migrate support content from an internal knowledge base. The original plan assumed this could be done directly — but there was no mechanism to support it. The risk? The business could be left without usable support content on its public site, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers. Previous attempts had already failed, and trust in content design was low.
My role
I was hired as a Senior Content Designer to audit the knowledge base, identify risks, and deliver a scalable replacement. After uncovering flaws in the migration plan, I proposed a new approach: building a user-centred content model shaped by search and analytics data. I led the work end-to-end — from discovery through to delivery — and brought in another content designer to accelerate output. Stakeholders were engaged throughout via fortnightly updates and sprint playbacks.
My approach
Pulled 12 months of search and analytics data and customer feedback to identify real user queries.
Grouped and de-duplicated queries to define clear article sets.
Audited existing knowledge base content for accuracy, tone, and web readiness.
Prioritised articles by frequency and user need, starting with mortgages.
Created templates at low reading age to improve accessibility and scale across product areas.
Introduced metadata tagging to align support content with live product data.
Worked openly with stakeholders to build confidence and secure buy-in.
The outcome
User impact
Support content became clearer, simpler, and easier to find.
Low-reading-age templates reduced cognitive load and made content more inclusive.
Duplicate or fragmented content was consolidated into single, more reliable sources of truth.
Business impact
Delivered 52 new support articles (vs. 500+ fragmented legacy pages).
Cut the original timeline by over 75% (from 18 months to under 5).
Achieved significant cost savings by avoiding reliance on a bespoke migration tool.
Restored stakeholder confidence in content design after earlier failures.
What I learned
Raising risks early — and backing recommendations with evidence — builds trust even in high-pressure situations. This project reinforced how transparent, collaborative delivery can solve large-scale business problems, improve accessibility, and leave a sustainable legacy.