Background In Alberta, the advance care planning (ACP) digital space would benefit from improvement in ease of navigation, simplified messaging, and use of lay language. Current literature supports encouraging individuals to begin ACP early in their life. There are opportunities to encourage this by bundling ACP with other life planning activities, such as financial and estate planning. Our objective was to develop an innovative and comprehensive Alberta-specific website that houses ACP and related life planning content and resources for the public.

Methods The principles of co-design guided the development and implementation of our website. To develop ACP content, we assembled a multidisciplinary working group consisting of members of the public; professionals from the healthcare, legal, and financial sectors; policymakers; researchers; and representatives of community organizations. The structure of the website was co-designed by software developers, a marketing strategist, a communication advisor, and a graphic designer. Usability testing was conducted by a public panel of 13 individuals, representing end-users of diverse age, gender, race/ethnicity, and lived experience with ACP. Content analysis was used to thematize the feedback.

Results CompassionateAlberta.ca was launched on October 1, 2022 to equip and empower the public to plan for their future care and take care of one another through aging, illness, and death. Topic areas of the website include health, financial and estate planning, accompanied by a curated list of resources relevant to Albertans. Storytelling was used throughout the website to reflect diverse situations where life planning is important. Usability testing resulted in a series of recommendation to improve understandability, navigation, actionability and inclusive language.

Conclusion CompassionateAlberta.ca and the accompanying resources were co-designed to be a primary digital space for Albertans to access advance care planning and related content. Next steps include developing creative content and implementing this website broadly in collaboration with local community organizations.