A public website is judged on one thing: can a resident do what they came to do. We design for that, and we test it with real people before anything gets built.
Tasks before organisation charts
Residents do not know which department issues a building permit, and they should not have to. We structure the site around what people came to do, not around how the authority is organised internally.
Accessible by construction
Contrast, focus states, target sizes and heading structure are decided at design time. Retrofitting accessibility after development costs three times more and never reaches the same level.
Mobile first, genuinely
The majority of visits to a local authority site come from a phone, often on a poor connection. We design the small screen first and let the desktop layout follow.
Plain language
Administrative wording keeps people from finding what they need. We rewrite navigation labels and key pages in the words residents actually use, and we test that they work.
Each step ends with something you can review and sign off. You never discover the direction at the end.
Audit & research
We measure the existing site: search terms, most visited pages, dead ends, accessibility gaps. Then we interview residents and the staff who answer the phone when the site fails them.
Information architecture
We rebuild the navigation around real tasks and validate it before a single pixel is drawn, with card sorting and tree testing rather than opinions around a table.
Wireframes
Low fidelity layouts for the key templates: homepage, service page, online procedure, news, official acts. Structure gets agreed before aesthetics enter the discussion.
Interface design
The visual identity of your authority, applied to a coherent, contrast-checked interface. Typography sized for readability, not for a screenshot.
Design system
Every component documented with its states, its accessibility rules and its editorial use. Your teams and any future supplier work from the same reference.
Prototype & validation
A clickable prototype tested with real residents, including at least one participant using assistive technology. We fix what fails before development starts.
Every design artefact is handed over in an open, editable format, with its source files. If you change supplier in three years, the next one starts from your design system rather than from scratch.
Then comes developmentAround half of RGAA criteria are decided before a line of code is written: colour contrast, focus visibility, heading hierarchy, link wording, form labelling. We check them at the design stage, which is the only stage where they are cheap to change. The delivered site is then audited by an independent specialised firm, and we fix what it finds at our cost.
Talk to us about accessibilityKeyboard navigation
Every function reachable without a mouse, focus always visible
Contrast & sizing
Ratios checked at design time, layouts that survive 200% zoom
Structure & labels
Heading hierarchy, landmarks and form labels decided upfront
Alternatives to media
No information carried by colour alone, alt text planned per template
