The aims and objectives of the Local offer for care leavers project were to:
make it easier and more appealing for young people to find out information
design pages that target a youthful audience.
Project stages
Analytical and discovery work
We looked at Hotjar to see how users were currently interacting with the existing webpages. We found most users would only scroll down 30% of the page.
With this data, we ensured our new design had all the page link options within this range so users could easily find all the information that is available to them.
Usability testing of existing design
We interviewed care leavers and asked them what they thought of the current pages. The feedback we received included:
“Looks a bit dull and not really easy to read.”
“More colours needed.”
“There’s so much writing - would be nice to add some pictures.”
Website build and design
After obtaining a brief from the service and carrying out discovery work, a mock-up was created that addressed the navigation and aesthetic issues discovered with the existing design.
This was presented to the service and tested with users. We then moved everything into our live environment after getting sign-off.
What we changed
For this project, we:
added more images
used a less ‘corporate’ typeface
altered the layout to fit more content at the top of the page
used more whitespace around text so it looked less 'text heavy'.
Measure of success
Usability testing of new design
We asked the same care leavers what they thought of the new proposed design.
The feedback we obtained included:
“Nicer to look at. Also, easier to read.”
“I like the colours - it’s more appealing.”
From the service:
“Digital was extremely helpful in listening to my brief and advising on what was available and what would work best. The project was swiftly picked up and worked on, moving on in a good amount of time. When I asked for some additional information to present to senior management Digital was willing to provide this which supported decision making.”
