Website Migration
Supporting a major charity rebrand across Drupal and WordPress
MS Trust helps people living with multiple sclerosis access trusted information, practical advice and specialist support. Its website is a vital part of that work, giving people clear routes to information, research, publications, tools and community resources when they need them.
MS Trust's first rebrand in nearly twenty years needed to land on a tight deadline, across a huge digital footprint, without disrupting a website that thousands of people with MS depend on. This is how Versantus helped MS Trust bring its new identity to life online, on time, on budget, and to the delight of its community.
The case for change
The rebrand had been a long time coming. The previous MS Trust brand had been in place since 2007, before smartphones became part of everyday life and before the web became the first place many people turned to for health information. It worked well in print, but it had become much harder to make work online.
The old brand relied heavily on cyan and darker blues, which created accessibility challenges and gave the site a clinical feel. It was trusted, but it did not always feel warm, friendly or clear that it was a charity that was independently funded (especially as many people first hear about the charity through healthcare professionals).
A merger with another charity, alongside a new organisational strategy, created the right moment to rethink how MS Trust looked, sounded and presented itself online.
The challenge
This was less “out with the old” and more “make the good stuff work harder”. The existing Drupal and WordPress platforms provided strong foundations, so our focus was on giving MS Trust’s digital estate a clear new look while keeping the experience familiar, accessible and reliable for the people using it.
The Trust website is a large and well-established Drupal platform, with a lot of content, several key user tools and a wide range of visitors with different needs. The challenge was to introduce the new visual identity across the site while keeping the existing structure, functionality and backend systems intact. That meant the work needed to be careful, controlled and practical. No unnecessary rebuilding, no change for the sake of it and no nasty surprises for users.
The refreshed Drupal site needed to apply the new visual identity across key templates, tools and interface elements, while continuing to support WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards and strong front-end performance. Getting accessibility right was especially important as people living with MS can live with varying levels of dexterity, mobility, vision, fatigue and cognitive difficulties. Navigation, buttons, forms, content layout and interactive tools all needed to be reviewed with those users in mind.
There was also a hard deadline. The rebrand had been many months in the making, with time spent on discovery, research, focus groups, surveys and brand development. When the final brand was signed off in early September, the team had roughly six weeks to get it live online. The driver was a pre-planned Christmas fundraising appeal, already at the printer, which would begin landing in letterboxes and appearing in publications from early November. The site needed to match what people were about to see in print.
Our approach
Versantus worked closely with MS Trust and branding agency Red Stone throughout the project. Red Stone provided the brand direction, and our job was to turn that identity into a usable, accessible and reliable digital experience.
One of the first and most important contributions Versantus made was helping the MS Trust team understand the different ways a website rebrand can be approached. It was vital to know that a full rebuild was not needed, and it would not have been a sensible use of charity funds. Instead, Rose Robinson (Head of Customer Success at Versantus) helped MS Trust to focus on the parts of the site where the new brand could have the biggest practical impact within the available time and budget.
"Rose helped us understand that there are varying degrees ... you could rip everything up and start again, or you could choose the key areas to iterate on that give you the best return. That was fundamentally important for us going in." — Jamie Sheldon, Head of Digital, MS Trust
Rebranding can sound simple from the outside. Add the new colours, swap the fonts, update a few buttons, job done. The brand agency, Red Stone, had done brilliant work creating the visual identity, but translating a brand into a complex digital platform, with 1,500 pages, multiple content types, specialist user tools and a hard deadline, was a different discipline entirely.
The new brand introduced a lighter, warmer and more expressive visual identity. It gave MS Trust the chance to feel more approachable while still being a trusted source of health information.
The tricky part was making that work across a website with a huge digital footprint. We reviewed the supplied brand assets, then translated them into flexible front-end patterns that could work across different content types, screen sizes and user journeys. Mobile-first thinking shaped the work from the beginning, supported by accessibility testing and careful attention to interaction design.
Where possible, we made the brand implementation automatic, so large parts of the website could switch over without MS Trust needing to manually edit hundreds of pages. Where automation was not appropriate, we created rules and guidance so the MS Trust team could work through content areas in a structured way without needing a bespoke design for every page.
Several important tools used by MS Trust’s community were also rebranded, including the disease modifying therapies comparison tool, and the ‘What’s causing my symptoms?’ tool. These tools needed to feel part of the new website while preserving the familiar functionality that users already depend on.
Navigation and interaction design were reviewed across touch devices, keyboards and assistive technologies. Small details mattered here. Clearer focus states, better spacing, more predictable interactions and simpler content pathways all helped make the site feel easier to use.
For the WordPress and WooCommerce shop, we focused on the changes that would make the biggest visible difference without overcomplicating the work. Branding, typography and interface styling were refreshed so the shop felt more closely connected to the main MS Trust website.
Performance was considered throughout. Asset handling, responsive behaviour and front-end improvements helped protect page speed and support stronger Core Web Vitals.
The rollout was staged around content freeze windows to reduce disruption and give the MS Trust team confidence at each step.
The outcome
The site went live in October 2025, right on time for the Christmas appeal. Both teams worked hard to get there: six weeks, 1,500 pages and a real deadline to hit. The launch went smoothly and the site kept running without any disruption for the people using it. The reception from MS Trust's community and long-term supporters was overwhelmingly positive.
The accessibility improvements were among the most meaningful outcomes of the project. Key tools, content templates and user journeys feel more joined up and the refreshed interface gives the site a clearer and more confident feel. The WooCommerce shop sits more naturally alongside the wider brand.
Ongoing partnership
Versantus continues to work with MS Trust through ongoing support and hosting, helping keep its digital platforms accessible, reliable and useful for the people who depend on them.
After several years of working together, the focus is now turning to further improvements to the MS Trust’s site set-up and infrastructure, so people living with MS can access the information and services they need online with as little friction as possible.