Of course, the new website had to be accessible to all customers.
‘We have to ensure we live our brand values,’ explains Sue Simpson. ‘One of these is straightforwardness. We use plain English and we aim for plain design - but that doesn’t mean everything has to be black and white, 14 point Helvetica. It’s about attractive presentation which is impactful and engaging, rather than design for design’s sake,’ she adds.
The website also had to be intuitive and easy to use rather than tricky or intimidating. ‘We are committed to accessibility - and not just because we are a government-backed organisation. By making our site more easily accessible for people with sight or reading difficulties we make it easier for everyone to use.’
Good design - on or off-line - has to be inclusive, although a balance must be struck between accessibility and an interesting and engaging brand experience, Hudspeth adds.
‘The typical approach to making a website universally accessible is to reduce its more colourful aspects - the use of Flash, JavaScript, or video streaming, for example,’ he says.
‘But online creativity doesn’t have to be compromised, which is why we built this site using a combination of cascading style sheets and XHTML. Cascading style sheets also allow information to be more quickly downloaded from the website - even for those using slower, dial-up modem connections.’
Before the new site was launched, accessibility and user testing was carried out. The latter involved two focus groups representing the two target consumer groups. Participants were filmed using a series of test pages. The site’s language and navigation were then refined according to the focus groups’ feedback and user journeys.
