Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
Transforming the Crown Office’s public and internal digital estate.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Rebuilding an entire web estate for Scotland fire safety service
The ask
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is responsible for keeping Scotland’s citizens safe from fire related incidents. They do this by providing emergency services, education and influencing policy.
We’ve been working with SFRS to help them deliver effective, accessible digital services for both staff and the public. This has involved designing and developing a new Umbraco website, a SharePoint intranet, and a custom digital library for their documents.
What we did
We approached the website, intranet and document library as an ecosystem. By seeing products as interconnected, the team stayed focused on streamlining requirements. It also allowed for a more integrated onboarding experience across platforms.
Through stakeholder conversations, survey results, and analytics data, we found a common struggle. Users frequently encountered issues with both search and discovery. We did this in two ways: introducing metadata and creating a user-centred site structure. User data and stakeholder workshops informed both the intranet and website architectures. And then tested and refined through unmoderated user testing before build. New site structures reflected common tasks to make content more findable. We further improved findability for the intranet and document library using SharePoint's search. Well-defined metadata tags were key. They helped filter and retrieve content and improved site load speed.
Employees at SFRS have a lot of acronyms to learn. This made searching for information on the intranet challenging. To tackle this, we built an abbreviations catalogue in SharePoint, which we adapted from SFRS’s glossary. Using this pre-tested SharePoint content type streamlined development efforts. And it allows employees to find information more easily.
Consistent collaboration, a multidisciplinary team, and an agile approach build a strong foundation for delivery. This is what allowed us to reach a flexible, scalable solution with longevity. Weekly progress meetings with SFRS created the space for constant feedback and adjustments. We used our library of pre-tested, web accessible (WCAG) components as a starting point. We prototyped in-browser early, allowing for faster, better iterations. This allowed us to create accessible, functional solutions in a tight timeframe. And also ensured compliance with the Digital Scotland Service Standard (DSSS).
Results
We successfully enhanced search functions on all three platforms. It’s now easier for SFRS to manage content and continue to improve search in SharePoint as new pages are added. Content contributors can add and organise content in a way that’s sustainable, scalable and user friendly.
We tackled information overload and duplication by creating a content workflow with SFRS. Additionally, we redesigned the intranet and website to better meet user needs. This resulted in a simpler, lighter website. It also had a positive environmental impact and loaded faster. Both the client and users praised the new, simpler structure and the visual elements.
