Ark
Variety – A more authentic and contemporary online presence for a well-loved brand
2022 – ongoing
Variety provides practical help that makes an immediate difference to disabled and disadvantaged children and young people.
With a need to revitalise their online presence, Variety approached us to build a new website, expand their visual language, and better showcase the scale and impact of their work. This included the development of a new brand type family, colour palette, guidelines and custom illustrations.
Clarity around users
Early in the project, we worked with Variety to define a set of user stories that they could prioritise such as routes into service information, grant applications and donations. We spent time during the information architecture and design phases to consider these stories carefully, testing our thinking with staff and website users throughout. Following this, clear prominence was given on the home page to information relating to services, grants and giving, and we introduced new features such as a widget which pre-fills form data when users click through to donate.
Variety needed a site that was easy to use and had a clear and consistent approach to navigation. We spent time designing and refining our approach to the structure, labelling and language to make sure it aligned as much as possible with users’ expectations.
Modernising the brand
Lacking the time or resource to run through a full brand design process beforehand, there was an implicit requirement in our website brief and subsequent discussions to bring our brand experience to bear where possible. We suggested a more contemporary, positive and authentic visual approach that would bring their beneficiaries’ stories to life.
We substantially expanded Variety’s brand palette and created a family of playful shapes, templates and designs to be used across channels both as stand-alone elements, to emphasise key calls to action and place Variety’s service users front and centre. Wherever possible, photography on the website uses dedicated linked captions to deliver users directly into relevant personal stories of Variety service users.
A foundation for future development
Variety’s digital estate incorporates multiple third party tools such as Salesforce, Shopify and Eventbrite. Rather than a complete budget-breaking overhaul, we suggested a ‘minimum viable product’ (MVP) approach that got the basics right and provided a foundation for subsequent development rounds.
This enabled Variety to get a new website live as soon as possible so that they could start learning about their users’ needs, before making wider strategic decisions relating to their online presence.
Simon, Darren and Adrian brought a rare balance of savvy strategic thinking, robust technical skill, sophisticated branding expertise, design flair and creative originality to our website redevelopment. They’re a really likeable bunch, which made working with them a pleasure, and their excellent interpersonal skills and ability to engage stakeholders at every level meant we were able to navigate the process towards a successful outcome.