Using a range of research techniques, we helped the NCSC to understand its users’ needs and online behaviour. We designed a website that helps people discover and easily digest the information they need to stay safe and do business online, irrespective of technical expertise.
The NCSC’s mission is to help make the UK the safest place to live and do business online. They do this by providing professional advice, guidance and support on cyber security to all organisations, businesses and the general public.
We defined the challenge as: “how do we get the right information to the right people at the right time to affect real change in behaviour?” In order to meet this challenge, we needed to understand the needs of users from a diverse population, ranging from parents concerned about their children and online gaming to a cyber security specialist working in the energy sector.
We worked creatively and used multiple research methods to reach a wide range of users quickly and build up contacts for future research. Research methods included:
Our research identified clear user needs, personas, research insights and hypotheses, which informed our designs through alpha and beta.
We explored a broad range of design ideas, at speed, and tested these with real users. This agile research and design cycle identified the right set of features and site structure to help users find the right information efficiently.
We combined ongoing analysis with regular ‘show and tells’ to update the team with interim findings and adapt the research approach accordingly to ensure a broad understanding of user needs.
We discovered that members of the general public did not ‘feel like the [original] website was for them’, while cyber security experts felt the guidance was difficult to find and poorly organised.
Through alpha and beta we tested various prototypes with users and found that an audience-based navigation helped the NCSC’s diverse set of users find information that was relevant to them more quickly.
We worked with subject matter experts and the editorial team to refine the information to make it more compelling and easier to read.
During research on the new designs, we consistently heard users say that the NCSC had ‘increased the amount of guidance on the website’. We had in fact reduced the amount of content on the site, proving that our easier-to-discover design made the site feel like it had more content.
Head of Digital, Communications Team
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