Family Makers Website Design
We overhauled a surrogacy agency's site to simplify nuanced information and reflect their deep humanity.
Website before
Website after
About Family Makers
Family Makers is a surrogacy agency founded on lived experience. Ashely Hammonds started the agency after discovering her calling through her experience as an intended parent, and the entire team is made up of experienced surrogates who have had Family Makers as their agency.
For intended parents, this means a deep understanding of the emotional journey that would've led a family to seek out a surrogacy agency, and a dedication to transparent guidance. And as an agency for and by surrogates, holistic support and passionate advocacy drive Family Makers’ ethics. For all involved in such a life-changing journey, respect for deeply human experiences and relationships is at the heart of it all.
The website before
The Family Makers team came to us because they knew their website wasn't doing them justice. It was confusing to navigate, overstuffed with scattered information, and had a cold look to it. It was a challenge to not only speak to two completely different groups, surrogates and intended parents, but also to an audience with a huge range of prior knowledge—some not knowing what the surrogacy process would look like at all. This resulted in a site that was super dense in text and hard to absorb. We knew we needed to transform the site from impersonal and muddled to warm and informative.
Website before
Website after
Project objective
Transform the site from impersonal and muddled to warm and informative.
Meeting with the Family Makers team
We kicked off the site redesign by meeting with the Family Makers learn about the world of surrogacy and their goals for the new site. It was fascinating to hear about the unique perspectives of both potential surrogates and intended parents, as well as the rigorous advocacy and ethics that go into positive surrogate relationships.
We immediately identified their key positioning: Family Makers is founded on lived experience. We understood that the tone needed to feel human, supportive, and transparent.
Bringing to life with our launch-ready website process
As part of our Launch-Ready Website Process, we used our Corporate Comfort design as the foundation of the site, which we then completely customized to fit the Family Makers brand. They provided a new calming color palette and infinity icon, which we paired with the font from the Corporate Comfort design to create a new logo.
Healthcare website design templates can often lean impersonal or cold. Our website design for Family Makers does the opposite, giving a warm and approachable feel to match their ethos.
Website before
Website after
We then began the website build with wireframing. We got into the weeds and really figured out how we could keep things simple for the visitors when there was so much going on: two completely different audiences and an endless supply of nuanced information that could be shared.
We planned an overall site structure and then mapped out each page section-by-section to give visitors a holistic impression of Family Makers. For copywriting, we gave a prompt for every piece of text on the site so that the Family Makers team knew exactly what to say. Our outside perspective allowed us to pull out core themes, guiding the team to present their deep industry knowledge in a streamlined and clear way.
A tour of the website features
To keep things interesting and present detailed information clearly, we looked for every opportunity to add in an engaging website feature.
Dual site navigation
We structured the entire site as a choose-your-own-adventure with separate experiences for intended parents and surrogates. Each side of the site is completely tailored to each perspective, with different navigations, landing pages, copy, and photos.
Password-protected portal
There is also a whole other area of the site: a password-protected portal for surrogates to securely fill out forms, access educational documents, and move through the details of each phase in the surrogacy journey.
Case studies
It was important to share details about real people involved with sensitivity and care. We added an interactive section spotlighting hopeful intended parents in a way that allows potential surrogates to get to know them as people, without being completely overloaded with information.
To share about surrogate experiences, we included anonymized surrogate case studies to show diverse "whys" and how surrogacy changed their lives too.
Animated numbers
There were a good few areas of the site that included data, so we decided to include a counter animation to keep things engaging. This was put in place for agency statistics, compensation numbers, etc.
Infographic-style layouts
A signature of our Corporate Comfort template is the infographic-style layouts. This site has a lot of information to share, like the surrogacy process and timeline, costs involved, and ethical eligibility requirements. There are tons of frequently asked questions in this world. We needed to simplify and break down information for visitors so they could get informed without overwhelm.
Seamless embeds
The Family Makers team uses a third-party platform that's integral to their internal systems and analytics. We were able to embed many of these forms on the site, from an eligibility quiz to a compensation calculator to secure medical forms. We used custom coding to get all the font and color styles to seamlessly match the rest of the site.
Website before
Website after
Final results
The final site design helps get visitors educated about surrogacy, acquainted with the Family Makers experience, and empowered to take their first steps into a huge decision. With streamlined sections and interactive features, the website brings Family Makers’ key positioning to life in a simplified way.
See it live at the newly launched Family Makers site.
