The Challenge

As a new campaign was being developed to introduce a new chapter in the Switch on to Swindon initiative, we were approached to help refine the online aspects of it.

With such an important focus for the council, there were naturally a lot of eyes on this project, and a lot of stakeholders that we needed to consider at each step. Getting a good project kickoff meeting underway was essential to help us get everyone "in the room", and start capturing information about key priorities, measures of success, and potential pitfalls.

As the wider campaign was still being developed, we had to consider and influence it such that it would be appropriate for the online website, and also be flexible enough to welcome any changes as it became closer to the launch.

Discovery & UX

In our early discover phase, our designers and UX researches began with some market research and interviews to help establish the direction of the website. This fundamental research would underpin the entire project, so it was essential to get it right.

We also had a number of different audiences to consider with the website, and creating a balance of information between them was an early focus. We created a simple hierarchy that would speak directly to each type of audience, and used a clear, friendly, and informative tone-of-voice to help convey useful information.

From our early research, we were then able to draw some recommendations and summarise our findings. We met with the client, and all stakeholders, to decide on the next steps. Based on this, we were able to come up with a complete plan and roadmap for the remainder of the project.

We like to create enough detail in our plans to ensure that we're all on the same page, but also to agree on the amount of flexibility that we might need as we get into the detail, and have to change plans based on things we learn along the way.

Design & Development

Throughout the remainder of the project, we'd be getting into the specifics of the website design and build. With lots of stakeholders, it's important for everyone to have a voice, and have their input. We built plenty of catchup sessions and key sign-off points into the project, so that we could give everyone an opportunity to join us and give feedback early.

We also make use of prototypes, as we find they are a great way to bring designs to life, and show how things will actually interact in the final website.

We were keen to bring our expertise and experience to all aspects of the campaign, and suggested many improvements to parts of it, such as refining the logo to be more useful in an online setting.

For the website build, we used Webflow to quickly build an fully interactive and responsive website. This was the perfect choice for this project, as we had maintainers who were fairly non-technical, and would also allow us to quickly build from the designs, and update as needed on an ongoing basis.

At the end of this successful project, we had created a great foundation for the campaign and wider initiative to build from.

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