The Digital Transformation of our website
Providing you with up to date, current and informative content, is important to us and is crucial for our volunteers to be able to deliver brilliant programmes and allow parents and young people to have access to all the information they need.
Presenting our information clearly and in an accessible format, via our website, is essential.
At the end of 2019 we conducted development research into the infrastructure of all content held within https://members.scouts.org.uk/ as a plan to improve usability for everyone and transfer content over to our new site www.scouts.org.uk
Through various workshops and surveys, we identified the questions most asked to relevant teams at the Scouts, and asked a set of individuals to carry out scenario user testing of our site (e.g. how to find the history of Scouts.) This allowed us to understand how people were using our website, how they were locating content and the ease in which they are able to find something.
The results allowed us to propose new categories of information and relabel some existing content.
Participants in our survey helped us to map the correct location of our content going forward and were able to let us know that information should be presented in different versions, dependent on the reader. In agreement with our user testers, the information for parents section of the website was considered useful, but needed a clear distinction from that of our volunteers.
Other findings showed the importance of carefully and deliberately using keywords to ensure the correct content comes up for the right user. As well as the need for clear cross content sign posting between sections.
Through this extensive research, user testing and search trend data from Google, we were able to draft an information infrastructure on to www.scouts.org.uk with four main headers, Join Scouts, Info for Parents, Info for Volunteers and About us.
The high level infrastructure of the website has now been implemented to www.scouts.org.uk. Throughout 2020 we are transitioning all content from https://members.scouts.org.uk/ into this new infrastructure. If you’re visiting the members’ site, and information has already been transitioned you will be redirected to the new location in www.scouts.org.uk. Once the information transfer has been completed in its entirety, the members’ site will be closed down permanently, with all users accessing our news, information, tools, advice and training via www.scouts.org.uk.
We hope the transition of information and infrastructure changes will benefit everyone from parents through to volunteers. The new website will be more accessible for all users, especially when using mobile. All content will be simpler to navigate and ultimately it will be easier for you to find the information you’re looking for.
We hope you’re as excited as we are in the digital transformation of our website.