Case studies
Reframing a website redesign with powerful insights and expert facilitation.
National Library of Scotland, UK
Scotland’s National Library looks after and and shares Scotland’s cultural heritage including everything from ancient manuscripts to digital content.
Services: Web user research, web strategy + action planning
Tools: Online survey, collaborative workshops,
Delivered: 2023 – 2024
The ask.
Like many organisations, The National Library of Scotland (NLS) has developed a huge web presence, with many different services for different audiences. However, as technology and systems reached the end of life, it was clear it was time to carry out a website redesign to make it more user-friendly. NLS wanted to understand current performance and use insight to inform both content and services whilst bringing key stakeholders along on the journey.
The answer.
FG+W was brought in to conduct audience research and provide recommendations on where the organisation could focus it’s efforts during the first two years of development.
The approach.
FG+W developed a quantitative research tool to analyse NLS’s online audiences. This allowed us to:
- Understand the motivations, needs, and behaviours of online library users
- Identify key user demographics and segments
- Discover who wasn’t engaging with the website and why
Armed with these insights, we evaluated the current website’s performance. We created a motivational segmentation model to help NLS set organisational priorities for building a new, more user-friendly website.
The outcome.
The insights from our research provided a solid foundation for:
- Setting priorities for the new website design
- Defining user-centred goals for future web development
- Establishing roles and workflows to support ongoing website improvements
We used all these to create a clear business case and roadmap for developing a more effective and engaging website.
By engaging stakeholders throughout the process, we ensured that the proposed changes had broad support within the organisation. This collaborative approach paved the way for NLS to develop a website brief and development process that truly meets the needs of its diverse online audience.
–Màiri Lafferty, Head of Digital Engagement, National Library of Scotland
“FG+W understood our brief and the challenges we faced from the outset. Their expert facilitation and willingness to challenge our team and organisation were precisely what we needed to keep the project moving forward.
Through this partnership, we’ve begun an ambitious website redevelopment, framed as an organisation-wide initiative. Our team has grown more adept at using audience insight to drive meaningful change.
Working with FG+W has been both challenging and supportive. Their human-centred approach ensured the project evolved based on our needs, timelines, and resources. I highly recommend them and would work with them again without hesitation.”
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