Launching a High-Stakes Health Campaign on Django and Wagtail

CHALLENGE

A national public health organization was preparing for a high-stakes, multi-million dollar campaign designed to connect with a mobile-first, Gen Z audience. Backed by science, media investment, and mission clarity, success hinged on digital experience — and it had to deliver immediately.

Thousands of new users needed to be able to register within days of the campaign launch. Yet, the platform powering this push was dated, fragmented, and ill-equipped to meet modern expectations. Key features like phone-only registration, SMS onboarding, and Single Sign-On (SSO) were unfinished. A mandatory domain switch, essential for rebranding, risked breaking logins for thousands — including enterprise partners with SSO-based access.

The site had to be fast, intuitive, and trustworthy — on any device, at scale. And it had to work on day one.

Implementation Details

Solving this challenge meant balancing stability with progress.

CMS Enhancements

To align with the mobile-first campaign strategy, we delivered a fully responsive homepage redesign — modernizing fonts, colors, and layouts. Launched in sync with the campaign, the update also introduced support for localization.

Secure, Seamless Domain Switch

Maintaining uninterrupted SSO during the domain change was a major technical hurdle. We developed a workaround to persist federated identity sessions across domains. Extensive experimentation with cookie behavior, tokens, and redirects led to a stable cross-domain login experience — preserving continuity for enterprise users.

SMS Platform Migration and Registration Flow

We assisted with integrating the client’s custom application with Mobile Commons for mobile user registration. This gave the client tighter control over user engagement. The registration process was re-engineered as a dynamic, two-step form that responded to SMS responses in real time. We also collaborated with Mobile Commons to develop a custom API endpoint for clearing data from fields, a key missing capability.

Role-Based Access and Identity Federation

To support sponsored users logging in through external identity providers (SimpleSAML), we ensured role-based access persisted through backend changes. Multiple user types (e.g., free, sponsored, essential) retained correct permissions throughout the transition.

Deployment and Infrastructure

Backend: Django/Wagtail, PHP (legacy), Python
DB: Managed Postgres
Hosting: Heroku
Auth: SimpleSAML SSO
Security: HIPAA compliant practices

Testing Strategy

We implemented:

E2E testing with mocks for third-party integrations
Unit tests for API logic and form behavior
Headless SSO tests to validate cross-domain auth flows

Throughout, the work was collaborative and adaptive. We operated in tight feedback loops with the client’s team, testing ideas quickly, sharing progress transparently, and responding to real-time shifts with clarity. Where others saw risk, we brought calm and confidence — ensuring that the platform not only worked, but felt trustworthy.

RESULTS

The campaign launched on time — and without disruption.

Registrations surged in the first days, with users completing signups in seconds.
Enterprise logins remained intact, despite the domain change.
No outages or broken flows occurred, even under peak load.
Security and compliance standards were met with rigor, including HIPAA-grade protections.

If you’ve ever faced a high-stakes launch on top of legacy tech, you know how easily things can go sideways. But with the right mindset, and the right people, success is still possible, even under the toughest constraints. Read more about Six Feet Up’s App Dev expertise.