LocalGov Drupal Website Discovery & Development Project

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) required an evaluation of their stakeholder and resident’s journeys, identifying that the user experience needed to be simplified and made accessible using LocalGov Drupal (LGD).

Project results at a glance

0
End user survey responses
+ 0
Stakeholders engaged
0
Months from project start to launch

Simplifying and enhancing UX with LocalGov Drupal

In partnership with Annertech, we worked with the LBBD team to research, design and develop, and launch their new website using LocalGov Drupal (LGD). Created by councils, for councils – LGD is a publishing platform that incorporates the functionalities that councils specifically need for their platforms. Our aim was to prepare for the website development and iteratively design and build the new platform that would enable the council to deliver a digital first agenda, reducing residents’ and local businesses’ reliance on phone calls and face to face contact.

"Invuse provided us with the insights we needed for a resident-first website. The guidance, research and the reports that were delivered have meant that we are able to make services and information easier to access so customers can get on with their lives."
Jodie Jones
Customer Experience Delivery Lead at London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Further results of the project

  • We have provided a modern, accessible and user-centric website for LBBD to be able to connect with their residents, within just 6 months.

  • The new LGD website has facilitated WCAG 2.1 AA compliance up to the Government Digital Service (GDS) standards for accessibility.

  • The website is now running at a high performance, with LBBD’s users able to find the information they need quickly and efficiently.

  • The discovery phase and migration of content has ensured that the new LGD website offers easy navigation and simplified user journeys.

  • We also provided LBBD’s team a further 30 days support to them for any questions or assistance that was required.

Project at a glance

"London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council (LBBD) required an evaluation of their stakeholder and resident’s journeys, identifying that the user experience needed to be simplified and accessible using LocalGov Drupal (LGD).​"

Challenges to overcome

  • The original website had 3000+ documents that needed reviewing, reducing and ultimately ensuring they were accessible.

  • The search was unable to deliver any results, or suggested results, if there was a spelling error.

  • The original website, housed multiple broken links that would confuse the user and lead them to the wrong pages.

  • Residents found difficulty in accessing their account, making payments for rent, parking permits and other services.

  • Self-serving issues were causing the customer service team to deal with additional calls and enquiries.

The project process

We were required to help LBBD understand the changing dynamic of their end users’ requirements and build a website service that supports residents and local businesses more efficiently. 

To ensure the website platform met the GDS standards, the project was split into 3 phases; Discovery and strategy, Design and implementation and finally Maintain and evolve

Phase 1: Discovery & Strategy

Localgov Drupal discovery phase

The purpose of this phase was to support the LBBD CX team in identifying the types of users that will be visiting their website, and understand their frustrations, motivations and key user journeys to ensure we design and build a service that overcomes any challenges end users are having. 

 

  • Together with LBBD’s User Research team, we reviewed the findings of the research they had undertaken and translated them into tangible outputs through design and functionality prototypes to test on different user demographics. 

  • The Invuse team distributed multiple surveys that engaged 124 users and captured their feedback, identifying their challenges and frustrations so that we were able to create a list of prioritised requirements and recommendations. 

  • Over 27+ stakeholders were engaged with their feedback included in reports. 

  • We put together blueprints, best practice tagging and IA structures for us to 

Phase 2: Design & Implementation

Localgov Drupal alpha development phase
Once we had the research and data to support us in our decision making, we introduced the design and technical components of the project to launch the new website. The research gathered by both us and the LBBD CX team was analysed and prioritised to define the success criterias, ensuring we focussed on the key deliverables in the early launches and receive as much feedback for further iterations.
  • Our UX specialists reviewed the existing site and completed an in-depth audit and analytical review, whilst conducting a GAP analysis.

  • We conducted a key word and language analysis across the website to help us understand how the website currently performs in public searches, in order to identify opportunities to improve the efficiencies for local residents to find the information they need at a faster rate.

  • Invuse’s content experts helped cleanse the original content, ensuring the GDS service standards were upheld, and guided the team on the content design.

  • Content was then migrated over to the new LGD website with priority content being moved across first. This phase of the project was supported by Invuse via a selection of Content and Accessibility workshops for the LBBD team to utilise the best practice guidelines provided. Our team also supported the content creators by spot checking various pages for further improvements.

  • The usability and accessibility of the site was then tested to gather feedback which was used for action during the design and development cycles.

Phase 3: Beta

Once the final version of the website launched, we don’t stop there. Invuse committed to working with LBBD to continuously evolve their website in response to the needs and challenges the council and their end users have. By meeting regularly and having access to our specialists we’ll work together on any custom development projects that LBBD want to introduce for their site and the wider Local Government Drupal team. Including:
  • A fully hosted website with 99.5% availability guarantees on a proven infrastructure designed to support Drupal and Local Government service.

  • 8 hours of consultancy each month.

  • Access to a dedicated account manager to support daily needs and contributions to the LGD community.

  • Automated security updates applied seamlessly.

  • Minor upgrades – for example, updating from Drupal 9.5.x to Drupal 9.6.x.

  • Major upgrades – for example, Drupal 9 to Drupal 10.

Collaboration at the heart

As we worked together as a team, the collaboration between Invuse, LBBD and Annertech meant that any challenges that were faced throughout the project were resolved quickly and efficiently. The site successfully went live in September 2022 and LBBD were provided with a GAP analysis and Roadmap to ensure scalability and to support their future ambitions and latest technology trends.

“The team at Barking & Dagenham Council didn't just want a new website for the sake of it. They really wanted a platform that would meet their user needs, and they wanted their decisions to be based on the research.”
Cynthia Sipes
Invuse UX Research

The Project Team

About London Borough Barking and Dagenham Council

They have a proud working-class history, a heritage like no other London borough and strong community bonds built over generations. Barking and Dagenham boasts a history of enterprise, industry and adventure. And now, they are the fastest growing borough in London – not just in terms of population but also in terms of the amount of positive change taking place.

About LocalGov Drupal

LocalGov Drupal (LGD) is a collaboration of councils and suppliers, working together to design and develop an accessible, open source (Drupal) website platform. We work with councils to help them prepare and migrate their website to LGD, connecting their corporate priorities and goals with the voice of their end users.

About Annertech

Founded in 2008, Annertech has grown to become the most innovative open-source digital agency in Ireland. Widely considered to be Drupal experts and serial contributors to the core Drupal platform, Invuse’s partnership with Annertech unites the technical, analytical and experiential attributes to make your new website the best it can be for all your users.