The ultimate guide to designing HAF and SEND programme materials that actually get families to book

Why does good design matter for HAF and SEND bookings?

Good design removes the barriers between families and your programme. Councils invest millions in Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) programmes every year, but many eligible families still don't take part because they don't know what's available or how to book.

When your posters and social posts don't work, you end up with:

• Empty places that could have helped families
• Stressed last-minute bookings
• Endless phone calls from confused parents
• Programmes that look "underused", even though they're great

What we've learned from families booking on Eequ

At Eequ, we run bookings for HAF and SEND programmes and for private clubs and classes, working with councils across England. Watching thousands of families search and book has taught us four things:

• Parents scan, they don't read. Research by Nielsen Norman Group found that 79% of people scan rather than read word by word, so you have seconds to get your message across.
• Reading is hard for many families. About 1 in 6 adults in England struggle with reading. If your poster needs careful reading, you lose the families who need you most.
• Parents are busy. If booking looks complicated, they give up.
• Everyone's on their phone. Most parents will see your poster as a quick photo on their phone, so check it still works at that size.

Who actually books HAF and SEND activities?

You're designing for busy parents and carers who need to make quick booking decisions.

• Mobile users: Over 80% of bookings on Eequ happen on phones, during school runs, lunch breaks or late at night. Parents need to see key information immediately, without scrolling or searching.
• Time-poor families: They compare activities quickly, so show the activity name, dates, age range and available spaces at a glance. Use consistent layouts so families can compare easily.
• Families with mixed reading and digital confidence: Use simple words instead of jargon. Say "activity" not "provision", and "location" not "setting". Add icons alongside text, but don't rely on icons alone.
• SEND families: They need clear information about accessibility, sensory environments and staff support. Give this its own clearly labelled section, rather than burying it in the description.

Designing for mobile phones

• Images: Use portrait images with a 3:4 ratio, the typical phone photo. Landscape images shrink to the width of the screen, and the information on them becomes hard to read.
• Text size: Never go below 16px for body text. Smaller text forces people to zoom.
• Touch targets: Buttons and links need to be at least 44×44px to avoid mis-taps. Social media apps handle this for you.
• Layout: Stick to a single column, with what, when, where and the booking button at the top.

Parents want instant answers, so answer these questions in order:

1. What's the activity?
2. When does it run?
3. Are there spaces?
4. How do I book?

Put extra details, such as directions or cancellation policies, in expandable sections so they're available without cluttering the main view.

⭐ Eequ Pro Tip: Put one QR code on your poster that links to an Eequ Collection: a single page showing all your upcoming sessions and a map of your venues. Parents scan once and see everything, and you don't need a different link for every activity.

How do you make the important information stand out?

Structure, space and well-chosen fonts make the difference between good and bad design. Think of your poster, flyer, email or social post like a conversation: you wouldn't tell someone your life story before asking them to do something.

The left poster above puts the provider logo front and centre, but parents don't care who's running an activity until they know what it is. The right poster leads with the activity name, followed by the information parents need to decide.

What parents need to understand in 3 seconds

• What it is: for example, free holiday activities and meals
• Who it's for: ages or year groups, especially important for SEND provision
• How to book: the action they need to take

Everything else is extra detail they can read if they're interested.

Make it bigger to make it more important

1. Biggest: your main message. "Free February Half Term Activities and Hot Meals" works. "Local Authority HAF Programme Information" doesn't.
2. Second biggest: key details, such as ages, dates, times and location.
3. Third biggest: how to book. Make it stand out in a different colour, for example "Book now" or "Call 01234 567890 to book", and give it space.
4. Smallest: nice-to-know information, such as activity descriptions, provider information and logos.

Simple rules

• Use space. Don't cram everything in. Empty space helps parents focus on what matters.
• Use one colour for action. Pick one bright colour just for your booking details, and don't use it anywhere else.
• If in doubt, make it bigger. Parents often skim these materials while juggling children.

Common mistakes and fixes

• Everything is the same size: make important things noticeably bigger.
• Booking details hidden in a paragraph: put them in their own box with space around it.
• Lots of different colours and fonts: stick to 2 fonts and 3 colours at most.

Remember, the goal is to get families booked onto your programme, not to win design awards.

How do you make your materials accessible?

Accessibility means everyone can read and understand your materials, including people who wear glasses, are colour blind, have dyslexia or find reading difficult. Many children in HAF programmes have SEND, so tiny text or poor colour contrast locks out the families who need you most.

In the image above, the decorative script on the left might look prettier, but a parent squinting at their phone in bright sunlight can't read it. A dyslexic parent struggles with the swirly letters, and a colour-blind parent doesn't know what the green square means. Accessible design is simply clearer design, and everyone benefits.

The basics

• Colour contrast: Text must stand out from its background. Check it with a free tool such as the WebAIM Contrast Checker. Grey text on white usually fails.
• Text size: Use at least 12pt for print and 16px on screen, in a clear font rather than a decorative one.
• Don't rely on colour alone: Colour-blind readers may not tell red from green, so add icons, labels or patterns.
• Plain English: Write as if you're explaining to an 11-year-old. Keep sentences short, break up text with headings and bullet points, and avoid jargon.

Quick check before you publish

• Can I read this easily on my phone in bright sunlight?
• Does it make sense in black and white?
• Could I book in under 30 seconds?

Which fonts and text sizes work best?

Typography is the art of arranging text: choosing fonts, sizes and spacing so people can read your leaflet, poster or social post quickly and comfortably. Your font choices directly affect whether families can find the information they need.

Choosing fonts

For digital materials such as websites, emails and social media:

• Use sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana, which are clearer on screens.
• Try free options from Google Fonts. Open Sans, Lato and Roboto work well.
• Test on both phones and computers.

For printed materials, you have more flexibility, but readability still comes first. Test your font at different sizes and check it prints clearly, because what looks good on screen doesn't always work on paper.

⭐ Eequ Pro Tip: Pin your printed design to a wall and step back a few paces. If you can't read the largest text clearly, neither can a parent walking past the school noticeboard.

Text hierarchy

Think of your text sizes like a family: headlines are the parents (biggest), subheadings are the teenagers, and body text is the children (smallest, but still important). A typical scale is:

• 32pt for main titles
• 24pt for subheadings
• 16pt for body text

Use bold sparingly, set line spacing to 1.5 and avoid whole sentences in capitals, which are harder to read and can feel like shouting.

Writing for skim readers

Keep sentences short, use bullet points for lists, limit paragraphs to 3 or 4 sentences and put the most important information first. A parent juggling children while reading about your activities needs to find information fast.

What images work best on HAF and SEND materials?

Avoid generic stock photography. Overly posed, artificially lit shots make every organisation look the same and don't connect with families. Safeguarding makes photographing children harder, but the answer is to get creative rather than avoid real images. Try shots that don't show faces directly, photos that capture the atmosphere of your setting, or illustrations of real experiences that don't identify anyone.

• Choose action over posing. Children engaged in activities tell a stronger story than staged portraits.
• Represent your participants authentically. Show a range of ages, ethnicities, abilities and backgrounds that genuinely reflects your programme.
• Use high-resolution images: at least 1920px wide for main images and 800px for smaller ones. Modern phone cameras easily manage this.
• Use your own photos where you can. If you need stock images, try libraries such as Shutterstock or Unsplash.

Icons

Icons convey information quickly, for example age ranges, activity type, accessibility features and location. Choose one icon style, such as outline or filled, and stick with it. Every icon should have a clear purpose, as decoration without a function creates visual noise.

Why should your materials be consistent?

Families meet your programme in many places, including your website, flyers, emails, phone calls, social media and registration desks. When these all look and sound the same, families get a clear, reliable experience wherever they find you.

Consistency matters because it:

• Builds trust: families feel confident they're in the right place.
• Reduces confusion: parents don't have to relearn how things work.
• Saves time: families find what they need without second-guessing.
• Helps accessibility: predictable layouts and language help everyone, especially families with SEND children.

Keep your colours, logos, fonts, tone and booking steps the same across every channel, and put similar information in the same place each time, such as contact details at the bottom. Repeat key messages like "free meals included" or "SEND support available". For example, if your website says "book online or call us", your flyers should say the same.

What are the most common design mistakes?

Even well-intentioned choices can create barriers. Watch out for these.

Visual design

• Busy backgrounds or patterns behind text
• Poor colour contrast, especially light text on light backgrounds
• Text smaller than 16px on screen or 12pt in print
• Text placed directly over photos without a solid background or shadow

Content and layout

• Cramming too much onto one page or poster
• Jargon or complicated language
• Missing or unclear dates, times and contact details
• Important information placed at the bottom, where it might be missed

Digital accessibility

• No alternative formats, such as Easy Read or large print
• Icons or symbols without text labels
• Digital content that screen readers can't interpret
• Relying only on online materials, when not every family has a smartphone or computer

Print

• Glossy paper creates glare. Use matte white paper with solid backgrounds.
• Fancy fonts and capital letters are hard to read, especially for people with dyslexia. Use clear fonts in sentence case.
• Coloured paper or light grey text reduces readability. Black text on white paper gives the best contrast and is often cheaper to print.

The best printed materials for HAF and SEND families are often the simplest. Clear, well-structured black text on white paper will usually outperform a beautiful but hard-to-read design.

Communication

• Sharing information through only one channel, such as only online or only on paper
• Language that assumes families already know about HAF
• Forgetting that English may be an additional language for some families
• Images and examples that don't reflect your families

⭐ Eequ Pro Tip: Test your designs with real families before you print. Ask parents and carers, particularly those with SEND children, whether your materials are clear and welcoming. What seems obvious to you often isn't obvious to everyone else.

Design as a booking tool

For HAF and SEND services, your materials and booking page are often the first contact families have with you. If they're confusing, people give up. If they're clear, families book and feel confident about attending.

The same principles apply to the booking page itself: clear buttons, simple forms that ask only for essential information, upfront costs and times, instant confirmations and easy changes, on any device. Good design means fewer abandoned bookings and less time spent helping confused families, so more children get to the activities they need.

Ready to put this into practice?

Eequ, the booking system for children's activity providers, holiday clubs, wraparound care and sports clubs, also offers a poster design service for its providers, whether you're promoting HAF programmes, SEND provision or private activities. If you'd like a professionally designed poster that follows these principles, send us a support message and we'll get back to you with examples and next steps. See how Eequ runs bookings for HAF programmes.

Sources

• Nielsen Norman Group: How users read on the web
• National Literacy Trust: Adult literacy
• WebAIM: Contrast Checker
• Google Fonts