Hosted by Surrey County Council and working with Sport England, local councils, schools and health partners, it is involved in community programmes including the Surrey Youth Games, the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) scheme and falls prevention for older residents.
The Project
In 2020 legislation was introduced that meant publicly funded organisations such as Active Surrey were required to have websites that complied with the WCAG 2.1 AA standards for web accessibility, prompting Active Surrey to review their existing website. Active Surrey needed their new website to be launched in time for the law being introduced in late September 2020. This required the migration of over 150 pages of content from their existing website to a new platform that allowed the communications team to easily edit and update and was fully compliant with the accessibility requirements.
The Process
We began the project in late July 2020 which meant we had less than two months to design and develop the bespoke website to meet the September 23rd deadline. The website required a design that stayed true to the existing Active Surrey branding, whilst complying with the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Key considerations as part of the design and development included the colour contrast, typeface, heading hierarchy and navigation.
Arial font was selected which Siteimprove suggests as one of the most accessible fonts. Users with visual impairments have the ability to change the core colours on the site to high contrast versions of the Active Surrey palette at the start of each page with a single click. Accessibility tests were carried out throughout the development process to ensure the standards were being met and the site was built with inclusion in mind.
As the project had tight deadlines, the Active Surrey team played an important role in migrating their content. We carried out Content Management System training that meant the team were confidently able to add content to the website. This training also meant the team were very familiar with the CMS when the website went live, and since launch, they have continued to update the website.
The Outcome
The website was launched on September 22nd, in time for the deadline! Not only did the website launch in time to meet the accessibility requirements, the new website also…
👆 Increased organic traffic by over 43% compared to the previous period making organic search the top-performing channel
👀 Increased sessions by 15% and page views by over 23%
⭐ Increased the average session duration by 21% in key demographic groups
🦘 Reduced the bounce rate in key demographics by 8%
These results show the impact that an accessible and easy to navigate website can make on user experience.