The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) are a government agency who fund research and training in social and economic issues. Their website ESRC Society Today is a truly mammoth site with over 50,000 unique pages and receiving 6 million page views a month. Sometimes it can be a little difficult for users to find their way around.
ESRC’s solution is to develop ‘mini-sites’ – a site within a site. I was asked to develop a mini-site for their Communications Toolkit – a 160-page resource advising how researchers should communicate their work effectively to achieve maximum impact.
It was essential the mini-site was visually compatible with ESRC’s existing website and corporate identity. The was achieved by designing a signpost header graphic which uses the same colour palette and a similar visual style to the site’s over-arching header graphic.
The 160 pages of content were organised into a consistent and clear navigational structure, using a top navigation menu and a two-tier side navigation bar. This simplifies the how the user browses the toolkit and provides clear signposting as to where the user is at any time.
Visit the ESRC Communications Toolkit.
