Category: Website redesign, visual identity rollout
Client: PanMilar association, canton of Vaud
Scope: Full website redesign, identity applied across materials
The context
PanMilar is a Vaud-based association that supports migrant women throughout their perinatal journey. Midwives and community interpreters work together so that every woman can give birth and become a mother in her own language. A rare mission, recognized by the CHUV, the Yverdon and Riviera Chablais hospitals, and awarded by Utilité Publique Vaud in 2025.
The existing website didn't do this work justice. It was hard to navigate, barely legible for women who don't speak French well, and midwives hesitated to recommend it to their patients. The goal was clear: start over and build something that truly works for everyone.
The challenge
PanMilar welcomes women who speak 11 different languages: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Ukrainian, Tigrinya, Arabic, Albanian, Italian, Persian, and Turkish. Several of them are written right to left, Arabic and Persian, with characters that have nothing to do with the Latin alphabet.
In concrete terms, this means the same page template has to work in opposite directions, with radically different typography, without the layout falling apart. Every language version has to be as legible and as polished as the French one. No question of having a flawless site in French and a rough one in Tigrinya.
What we did
We rethought the site's architecture from the ground up, with a simple, visual navigation logic, accessible even to someone who reads little or is discovering the site for the first time in a minority language. The language selection appears right at the entrance to the site, clearly, without friction.
The multilingual rollout was handled through a dedicated WordPress plugin, with particular attention paid to right-to-left languages. Every version was tested independently to make sure the layout holds, the text doesn't overflow, and the typography stays legible.
Alongside the website, we continue to work with PanMilar on their print materials: annual reports, flyers, roll-ups. A lasting relationship, because visual consistency is built over time.
The result
The site is now the tool the association never had before. Midwives recommend it to their patients without hesitation. The whole network, volunteers, partners, families, finds its way around it and uses it to get informed and to sign participants up for sessions.
A public health website that works in 11 languages, designed for women in vulnerable situations, is a project that calls for as much rigor as empathy. We're proud of what we built with them.
What this project taught us
A good multilingual website isn't just about translating content. You have to rethink the structure, the typography, the reading directions, and test every version as if it were the primary one. Technology is in service of people, not the other way around.
