Due to the number of audiences that depend on Welsh Athletics, the obvious starting point was one of discovery. Because of this, we worked with them to understand exactly what they needed. To ensure we were on the right track we organised tailored focus groups with staff, senior management, athletes, clubs, coaches and parents. This deep insight gathering enabled us to develop sketches, wireframes, and a sitemap that matched the user’s needs and expectations, whilst signposting each audience type to relevant content.
Next, we reviewed their branding guidelines and set about revitalising them which included extending the colour palette, providing stand out fonts, and new messaging, based on the conversations and focus groups we held. Additionally, we made the assets downloadable from a Media Centre so that they can easily be used for promotions at club level. With such a stand-out and unique brand, we recommended WA trademark their logo and assets to protect the brand and cement their authority in the sector.
Once we were confident that we had gathered and documented all of the requirements, and we had developed the branding assets, we were able to move onto the website. This led to us designing and developing a fully responsive and bilingual website that would enable the user to personalise their experience, meaning that the content displayed would be relevant to them.
The CMS also worked as a collaborative tool so that a range of users from across the organisation could create, edit and submit content for approval – streamlining the approval process and allowing a clear picture for all involved.
We also built upon a framework with the future in mind, by defining a clear understanding of the objectives for upcoming phases.
