We’ve improved our website search function

Over the last few months we’ve been telling you about Project Mead, a transformation project improving our services to help everyone affected by MS.

In our project update last month, we told you about our new ‘Hub model’. Our Hub will be a virtual space where you can access up-to-date information about MS and find everything you need to know about our UK-wide services and local services all in one place.

Making it easier to find information

One way we’re doing this is by overhauling the search function on our website. If you’ve searched for information there before, you’ll notice things look a little different now. We’ve simplified the design of our search page and made the box you type your query into bigger. That makes it more accessible for people experiencing MS symptoms like tremors or low vision.

Behind the scenes, a new feature will pick up on possible misspelled words and suggest the terms you were likely looking for. People who use our website told us this will be especially useful for searches on those hard-to-spell drug names and medical terms.

Our search capabilities will be more refined, too. So it should be easier to track down information on specific types of help or support or find research updates and reports. And we’re introducing better signposting between searches and more relevant search results to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Making it easier to find groups, events and support near you

We’ll also have new improved location search functionality. So if you’re a group volunteer, people will still be able to find your group and events by postcode or town name. But they’ll now also be able to filter the results to focus in on the type of support they’re most interested in. We’ll tell them if these services are run by our staff or volunteers or are an independent offer.

As time goes on and engagement with our volunteers continues, we’ll be able to share more and more information about local community services. And we’re developing ways of keeping this information as up-to-date as possible. We’ll keep you posted!

Thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

If you’d like to share your thoughts or ideas on accessing our Hub or finding out about information and services, you can email the Project Mead team with your suggestions.

You can find all the latest updates on Project Mead here.