In 2015 IRIN News, now The New Humanitarian, approached Bliss to build their new content delivery platform. I led a creative effort that spanned nearly 4 months. This commenced with a thorough overhaul of the information architecture of their pre-existing 80,000+ reports.

I studied user patterns, thematic similarities, and the distribution of articles across categories, in order to greatly simplify content hierarchy and taxonomic relationships. Wireframing and high fidelity design phases followed, working closely with a highly engaged and responsive client team.

In 2019, IRIN became The New Humanitarian. With a brand overhaul came a rapid website redesign project. Although designed by a third-party agency, I was part of the development team that built the new theme. Following the launch, I oversaw a programme of insight-led experience and usability improvements.

IRIN News boasted a loyal readership but were poised to grow. Their existing website was slow, difficult to manage, and wasn’t optimised for smaller screens. In 2015, 35% of their readership visited on mobile devices. In 2019, that percentage is closer to 60%. Coupled with the knowledge that many visitors were in areas of poor connectivity (eg. rural Africa), performance and readability became our top priorities.

We had to account for various user journeys, informed by surveys and personas. Readers may casually browse, or work within a particular region, like North West Africa, or theme, such as Migration or the Environment.

Content administration was also a huge consideration. Many journalists contribute to the website, and media include galleries, video, interactive infographics, and more, alongside long-form content. How do you design a dynamic system that allows for creative control, whilst maintaining usability and consistency across thousands of articles?

Most of the original design process focused on wireframing. The goal was to establish clear content hierarchy, taking cues from print journalism, eye tracking and heat mapping studies, and following established usability heuristics.

I also worked to design layouts that would lend themselves to comfortably responding to different devices, and make the most of imagery and media without relying too heavily on them. This involved designing fallbacks for all eventualities: reports without imagery, or a high ratio of imagery to copy. I also had to consider multiple languages. For example, would blockquote or introduction blocks work as effectively when translated into French or an RTL language like Arabic?

In some cases we built wireframes with real content first, before leading with style tiles to establish the correct look and feel which led into the HiFi design phase.

Despite the amount of research and planning that went into the IRIN News redesign, we knew it wouldn’t be perfect. Yet it was a leap forward that gave us a foundation to continue testing and adapting to new insights. In late 2019 I led a UX audit of thenewhumanitarian.org and implemented a slew of changes built on this foundation of insight.

Working with The New Humanitarian is challenging, but extremely rewarding. Budgets impose the necessity of focusing on low cost, high gain improvements, and the stakes can be high. Compared to much of my other commercial experience, the goal is not to drive conversions and increase revenue: The New Humanitarian’s reporting from conflict and disaster zones informs prevention and response. It saves lives.

“The website BLISS delivered is faster, simpler, easier to search, and looks great on mobiles and tablets. It allows us to deliver more dynamic and visual content, on a range of platforms, as we continue to develop our storytelling.” Ben Parker, Editor-in-Chief, The New Humanitarian, 2016

Argyll Holidays are based in a stunning location, and have a lot to offer holidaymakers, but the tourism market is one that demands digital innovation, not only from competitors, but from users increasingly expecting more from their holiday booking experience.

The success of the services I helped provide over the years has relied on never standing still, never taking what we know for granted. I led the design and build of several new websites and microsites, and provided regular improvement and optimisation services that draw on our shared extensive knowledge of the holiday park sector.

In parallel, Argyll Holidays have acquired new parks, developed state-of-the-art new facilities, and welcomed more and more happy holidaymakers to their beautiful locations.

There are many challenges involved in promoting holiday parks and selling holidays. For example, how do we speak to younger families as well as older couples? How do we signpost to the fun outdoor activities alongside luxury accommodation? Ultimately, how we do we accommodate so many different possible user journeys?

There are also technical challenges that require considerate UX design. Working with third-party reservations software presents limitations that require innovative design solutions to provide the best possible user experience, and encourage more people to make bookings.

Over the years I ran user surveys, a/b tested new layouts and features, monitored and absorbed trends from industry leaders, and built on sector knowledge from other holiday park clients I worked with to deliver continually fresh and effective design solutions.

Ongoing, I oversaw a conversion rate optimisation programme that manages a backlog of testable design improvements and new features. In this way, I took a product-centric view of the reservations and holiday home sales websites. However, sometimes there’s a call to start afresh.

In 2018 I led a project to completely redesign argyllholidays.com. I undertook a UX audit that included hands-on user tests, surveys, usage data analysis, and a creative workshop with the client team in Scotland. I compiled my findings into a comprehensive report, which informed the following LoFi and HiFi design sprints.

My approach to design sprints is highly agile and inclusive. Using prototyping software like Invision, designs are shared and discussed instantly, and daily calls held with the client to maintain focus and dissolve with any blockers. I design patterns, not pages, ensuring that even complex systems can be reduced to a consistent, modular form that not only aids user experience, but supports a more fluid development process.

Working with Argyll Holidays, as well as the other holiday parks who’ve collectively allowed me to develop a thorough understanding of online holiday park tourism, was a continual learning process.

Over the years I developed a strong working relationship with the client, which engenders trust and enables me to take risks, within reason. However, not every new product feature has succeeded, and on several occasions I had to roll back implementations I was quite attached to. In effect, I had to ‘kill my darlings’. But understanding what doesn’t work is as essential as accurately predicting what does.

Working consistently for so long on the same products has helped me develop as a designer and developer in ways that working on one-off projects simply cannot provide.