Luma
Planning for a brighter future
Brain Tumour Hub
A support platform for people facing brain tumours
Created by long-term client brainstrust, Brain Tumour Hub was built to help people affected by brain tumours find practical support, trusted resources and relevant services more easily. More than a decade after we created the original platform, the hub needed to evolve. The challenge was to modernise the experience, improve the search functionality and replace the legacy bespoke PHP build with a faster, more scalable Laravel framework.
The new platform builds on the principles of its predecessor, retaining the core purpose of the original hub while enhancing the functionality, performance, interface design and user experience for a more modern digital product.
Services
Sectors
Finding the right support, faster
Brain Tumour Hub exists to make a difficult search feel clearer, calmer and more useful. For someone dealing with a brain tumour diagnosis, or supporting someone who is, finding relevant help can quickly become overwhelming. People may need different resources depending on their role, their location, their diagnosis stage, or the type of support they are looking for. We redesigned the platform around this need, creating a custom search journey that helps users refine results based on who they are, what they need and where they are. Whether someone is a patient, carer, loved one or healthcare professional, the hub guides them towards support that feels relevant from the start.
From bespoke PHP to Laravel
The original Brain Tumour Hub was built over 10 years ago as a bespoke PHP platform. It had served an important purpose, but the technology, functionality and user expectations had moved on. Rather than simply redesigning the front end, we rebuilt the platform using Laravel, creating a cleaner, higher-performance and more maintainable foundation for the future.
The Laravel framework allowed us to improve the structure of the application, enhance the search experience, support user accounts and create a more reliable backend for managing resources, service requests and directory content. This approach kept the original idea intact while giving brainstrust a sleeker, more robust and more scalable web application.
A full design system with personality
The refreshed visual language was developed from the master brainstrust brand, creating a design system that could support a broad range of content, journeys and user needs. We created a full icon suite, custom illustrations, interface components and flexible page layouts to help the hub feel more approachable and easier to navigate.
The colour palette brings vibrancy and clarity to the experience, while the illustration style adds warmth and humanity. Every element was designed to make the platform feel less clinical, more useful and more encouraging to explore.
A smarter search journey
At the heart of the platform is a searchable directory of brain tumour resources and support services.
Users can explore the hub manually or begin a guided journey by answering a series of simple questions. These include their role, the type of support they need, their diagnosis stage and their location. From there, the platform returns more relevant results, helping users find support services near them or resources that match their situation.
Each result can be opened to show more detailed information, giving users clear next steps and helping reduce the uncertainty that often comes with searching for support online.
Accounts, favourites and service requests
To make the experience more useful over time, users can create an account, sign in and save searches or favourite resources. The platform also allows users to request new brain tumour support services, giving brainstrust the ability to review, approve and grow the directory with relevant new entries. This creates a platform that is not only easier for users to navigate, but easier for brainstrust to manage, maintain and expand.
A more human digital hub
The new Brain Tumour Hub brings together Laravel development, thoughtful UX, a vibrant visual system and practical platform functionality to create a clearer route to support. It helps people find resources based on their real circumstances, gives brainstrust a stronger platform to manage its directory, and creates a more welcoming experience for patients, carers, families and professionals.
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