Visit the site A well-known name looking to establish a more authentic and contemporary online presence.
Variety came to us looking to revitalise their digital presence and expand their brand to better showcase the scale, scope and impact of their work.
They wanted to bring to life the stories of those they support, and incorporate a more dynamic and contemporary design which is positive and authentic. We developed designs with more playful use of graphics and which place Variety’s service users front and centre. We also allowed for more routes into service user stories by introducing images that can be placed anywhere on the site and include captions that link directly to the full case study.
Accessibility was at the heart of the project and they needed a site that was easy to use and had a clear and consistent approach to navigation. We dedicated time in the project to devise and interrogate the best approach to structure, labelling and language to make sure it aligned with users’ mental models as opposed to internal organising principles.
Early on in the project we developed a clear sense of some user journeys to prioritise, such as routes into service information, grant applications and donation options. We spent time during the information architecture and design phases to consider these journeys carefully, testing our thinking with users and stakeholders as we went. The resulting website gives clear prominence on the homepage to information relating to services, grants and giving. We also introduced additional functionality to allow Variety web editors to highlight key journeys in content, such as a donation widget which prefills form data when a user clicks through to donate.
Variety’s digital ecosystem is vast, incorporating lots of third party tools like Shopify and Eventbrite. Rather than proposing a complete, budget-breaking overhaul, we suggested taking a minimum viable product approach to the project – getting the basics right first and then building on that in subsequent development rounds. This enabled them to get the new site live as soon as possible so they could start learning about their users’ needs and behaviour before making wider strategic decisions relating to their online systems.
This is just the beginning of our partnership with Variety, and we’re excited to build on the brand and technical foundations we’ve laid so far.