BBSRC Food Security case study

http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/

The challenge

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is the UK's leading funding agency for academic research and training in the non-clinical life sciences. They wanted to make their first foray into direct online engagement with politicians, producers, scientists and the public on the critical issue of food security.

It was important to BBSRC that the new website had its own distinct identity. Although they had the in-house technical skills needed, BBSRC needed help with creating an engaging user experience.

The solution

We took a user-centred approach to the design because we wanted to ensure the site met users' needs.

The site structure and navigation was informed by a card-sorting exercise in which users arranged and labelled content in a way that made sense to them. From this we created a working prototype that showed how the pages would be laid out and how users would navigate between them. This working prototype was then validated through usability testing sessions, where real users were let loose on the prototype to see how well it worked. This provided invaluable insights that went into the final graphic design that gave the site a modern, impactful look.

Finally we produced standards compliant XHTML/CSS templates ready for BBSRC to build on the Wordpress blogging platform.

The result

Kate Lin, Web Manager at BBSRC said: "One of the reasons we chose Cubeworks was their experience in creating accessible and standards-compliant websites. Along the way they also had plenty of ideas to enhance the website and the user experience, including an engagement strategy for the social media elements of the site. With the tight timescales we had, I was pleased when the templates were delivered on time and to budget."

The new Food Security website launched at a Westminster event on 10 December.

Services

Strategic consultancy, user experience, usability testing, graphic design, HTML/CSS