Our approach
Unboxed worked with multiple stakeholders on this project - the digital team, service teams across 5 councils and 2 other agencies. We knew that building relationships through, trust and collaboration would be key to delivering a good outcome. From the start, we established working processes that allowed us to manage multiple interests and collaborate quickly throughout the project.
Working openly by default
We worked in the open from day one, embedding teams onsite in Aylesbury with the Buckinghamshire digital team. This helped build close, collaborative relationships. We set up regular Show and Tells with an open invite to colleagues across the council. Although we moved to live streaming during Covid-19, we maintained a strong team spirit which made it easier to deal with the challenges that come with a project of this scale.
Understanding user needs across 5 authorities
As the unitary authority was newly formed, we worked to recruit and carry out user research with a wide range of residents. Activities included one-to-one user interviews and user journey mapping to identify and validate user needs for the new website. We used these to create simple clickable prototypes to get feedback on early thinking about designs.
Accelerating progress through a design system
With the new council branding launched, we created a design system of reusable styles, components and patterns to be used on the website which was inspired by the GOV.UK Design System. This made delivery faster as the components were available to work with straight away. These are now used across the council to ensure a consistent user experience across services.
Here is aAn example of how the design system was used is in the delivery of the Jobs and Careers website.
We also designed and developed new templates in the CMS for different content types. We enjoyed working with the Buckinghamshire content team to establish consistent content patterns to help residents navigate information online. We incorporated these into the design resources section published on the website.
Content audit
We carried out an audit of what was on the legacy websites to see what should be moved across or archived. We’d collectively set out content principles to guide what should stay and what should go. These principles focused on accessibility and user need. Managing an audit process can be difficult when you are removing content that different teams or individuals have worked on - these content principles and clearly defined user needs were very useful in explaining why some content should be archived or changed.
After the audit we then produced content plans to map content against user needs (identified through user research, call logs and website metrics). The content audit informed how we would structure the navigation and information architecture (IA) on the new website. We tested variations of the IA with residents using methods such as such as tree testing.
We used pair writing to collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) in each area to draft and fact check new or revised content before it was published.
The bin lorry pivot
In the lead up to vesting day, there was unexpected news that bin lorries using the new council branding and URL had to be launched before the original go live date for the new website. We therefore had to pivot and re-scope the MVP by reducing our number of sprints to meet this earlier deadline.
“The bin lorries livery changing is one of the more bizarre curve balls I’ve dealt with as a Delivery Manager, but it really proves the value of an MVP approach. We were able to descope a few things and still have a functional website available for vesting day, without impacting overall delivery of the site.”
Tom Harrison | Senior Delivery Manager | Unboxed
The Covid pivot
The Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 also meant the focus had to shift from the roadmap and move towards helping residents during lockdown by providing information and advice for local services. We were able to quickly respond to change by designing and developing a coronavirus support and information hub to help residents and businesses.
The trust we'd built with the digital team and the other agencies working on the project made it easier for us to quickly adapt and meet these emerging needs.
