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URL: http://www.theeuandme.org.uk
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Key Industries:
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Educational & Vocational
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Government / Social / Political
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Key Sectors:
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Content Management
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Design & Build
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Usability
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User Generated Content
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The European Commission
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Brief
A survey conducted in England highlighted that 70% of Britons want to know more about how the EU affects their daily life. The European Commission produced a booklet that proved very popular among UK residents and as a result, decided to produce an easy to use and engaging website providing selected information, multimedia and news in a concise and accessible format. Part of the reasoning behind this was that updating and managing the printed publication was a slow process, whereas via the website the EU could provide real-time updates for users, and in the long-term save on costly print runs.
The target audience was Britons interested in learning more about various aspects of how the EU contributes towards Britain and what Briton’s get out EU membership. The website was to be crafted ensuring optimisation for users arriving via search engines to landing pages as well as those arriving on the homepage.
Strategy
There were 5 stages in the production process:
- Discovery Phase – Brainstorming with the EU and real potential users of the website, conducting a web survey, running stakeholder interviews, reviewing existing analytics on other EU websites and conducting brain-writing sessions.
- Strategy Phase – Planning the logic flow of all user interactions in logic flow diagrams and sitemaps. Cyber-Duck then produced fully functioning prototype wireframes for each page on the website which were tested with potential users.
- Design Phase – Cyber-Duck produced all of the designs and art direction for the website in a storyboard.
- Development – Once designs were approved, Cyber-Duck programmed the website using standards compliant code and integrated the back-end content management system
- Testing – Cyber-Duck conducted eye tracking sessions with real users to validate all UX decisions that were made and tweak and improve the usability of the website.
Execution
As a result of the strategic process, it was decided that the site would consist of 5 areas, each of which would hold an area of information we knew was important to users:
- What the EU does - This is the core of the site, which gives details and sources of further information for Travel and Working, A Fair Deal for Consumers, Food and Environment and Fighting Crime.
- The EU in my area - This allows users to see case studies of EU projects in their area and local sources of information, such as Europe Direct Centres, simply by putting in their postcode. Users will also be able to navigate local EU projects via a map as well.
- EU Myths - This section tackles some of the things that the EU doesn't do that have entered into popular mythology. These myths range from liquefying corpses and flushing them down the drain to changing our ‘999’ as our emergency number.
- About us - This section has an interactive timeline showing some of the main dates in EU history, with photos and video. This section also provides simple explanations of who does what within the EU.
- News and views - This section has a news feed from the main representation website with all EU news of relevance to UK citizens. It also has a section for subscribing to the Representation's blog, and a chance for readers to submit their own stories.
Results
The website attracted over 20,000 visitors within the first week of launch along with gaining media coverage across national UK newspapers, the BBC and Italy’s prominent Corriere Della Sera magazine. The feedback about the website design has been extremely positive.
The website will be kept updated by existing European Commission Representation staff.
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