Explore EssexEssex County Council
Explore Essex provides a one-stop-shop for local residents to find out about events and activities taking place at the many and varied places and locations in Essex.
- Platform
- Craft CMS
- Location
- Chelmsford, Essex, UK
- Client since
- 2019
The final product
Screenshots showcasing the responsive design across devices.
The Brief
The events and marketing team at Essex County Council approached us with a project to replace the existing Visit Parks website with a new website, Explore Essex, that expanded on the remit of Visit Parks to encompass places and events across Essex beyond those happening in the parks and green spaces.
The new site needed to be appealing to a broad audience, including people looking for day trips, school days, nights out, venue hire, walks and people planning weddings or civil partnerships.
Being part of a local government agency the Explore Essex site needed to adhere to the strict accessibility and best practice standards in this sector so a lot of time and effort needed to be invested in making the site AA accessible, as well as being secure, fast and responsive.
What we did
The project timeline was tight and a fully-formed development site needed to be available before the Christmas break giving us just twelve weeks but we were confident in our abilities and the capabilities of Craft CMS to deliver the project brief on time.
As Explore Essex already had a design and branding partner involved we worked closely with them during the design phase providing feedback and answering questions related to the website design as it evolved.
With the design work complete we translated the approved artwork into working Craft CMS templates and web pages ready for content entry. As our development work evolved we kept in close contact with the client keeping them updated with our progress and fielding any comments or questions.
The most challenging aspects of the project were the custom events search and filtering tools and enabling a “block” approach to page design instead of relying on rigid page templates, this allowed the client to build a wide variety of pages with a huge mixture of content based on all the content element types available to them in Craft CMS.
Key features
The components and capabilities we delivered.
Events Management
Comprehensive events system allowing the Essex County Council team to create and manage a wide variety of events across the county.
Events Search & Filters
Custom search and filtering tools enabling visitors to find events by type, location, date and audience.
Flexible Page Builder
Block-based page design giving editors freedom to build diverse content pages without relying on rigid templates.
Our approach
A proven process tailored to this project's unique requirements.
Discovery
We start by understanding your goals, audience, and constraints. Through workshops and research, we define the project scope and success criteria.
Strategy & Wireframing
We map out the user journey and information architecture. Low-fidelity wireframes let us test ideas quickly before committing to design.
UX/UI Design
Visual design that balances aesthetics with usability. We create interfaces that look great and guide users effortlessly toward their goals.
Development
Clean, well-documented code built on proven frameworks. We develop iteratively, sharing progress regularly so you're never in the dark.
Quality Assurance & Launch
Rigorous testing across devices and browsers. We handle deployment and ensure a smooth launch with minimal disruption.
Ongoing Support
Our relationship doesn't end at launch. We provide proactive maintenance, security updates, and responsive support to keep your product thriving.
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