RHP Group

RHP is a charitable housing provider who own and manage over 11,000 affordable homes for social rent and shared ownership. Their purpose is to provide safe, secure homes – opening the door to life opportunities. Their website is the main way residents manage their home – from paying rent to reporting repairs and accessing support. Many visit in moments of stress or urgency, so trust, clarity and empathy are critical – in both function and feel. But the previous site didn’t reflect this as well as it could have.

What began as a technical review became a wider strategic opportunity: a full reimaging of the digital experience to build trust, empower residents to self-serve confidently, and better reflect RHPs reputation as a service provider who cares.

We began with deep discovery, aligning the project to RHP’s wider strategy. Inclusivity was non-negotiable. Many of RHP’s residents face complex challenges - including trauma, financial hardship, low digital literacy, or limited English. This lived experience shaped every decision, helping us design a platform that felt safe, supportive and easy to use, especially in moments of stress. From digital journeys to content and tone, every decision centred on user need.

Our user research revealed the core issues: users struggled to navigate, lost trust in broken journeys, and often turned to customer services when content felt overwhelming. We worked with RHP to simplify the architecture, streamline essential tasks, and design cleaner, more supportive layouts. RHP created all content based on a framework we provided, ensuring every word served real user need.

We then optimised the brand for digital: calm, accessible and human. High-contrast colours, legible type and mobile-first layouts were paired with friendly illustrations and diverse imagery to build emotional connection and trust.

On the tech side, we migrated to a modern headless CMS - Umbraco Heartcore - and introduced a flexible component system, giving the RHP team more control while reducing cost and complexity for future improvements.

The impact was immediate. Contact form submissions dropped 44%, showing that more people are self-serving successfully. And session time fell by 13% - a sign that users are getting what they needed, faster.

Delivered through true partnership and powered by user insight, the new platform empowers vulnerable residents and gives RHP a digital foundation to evolve its services for the future. It’s digital transformation with real human impact.