The Canal and River Trust are one the UK’s largest charities you’ve likely never to have heard of. They maintain 2,000 miles of waterways, some of which is 200 years old. They believe in improving people’s wellbeing through life by the water.

With mountains of research but uncertainty about how to action it, they approached Fat Beehive to help them make real progress on their complex and outdated website. We proposed a two-pronged approach, with a Discovery and Design process started simultaneously. 

Taking strong print brand guidelines we began with a design audit of the current site, then launched into layouts for key landing pages, including the homepage, helping the project gain momentum while also garnering the trust of the wider organisation. This bought us permission to begin the wider work of a design system. 

Parallel to this work, we began teasing out insights through a collaborative Discovery phase. First, we reviewed existing research to produce recommendations, then built on our own expertise in digital, content and UX – plus the existing research – to shape the site. We reviewed competitors, ran information architecture card sorting workshops and wrote user personas and user journeys.

The Discovery and Design phases informed each other as they progressed, enabling us to adapt as we went. By the end of the 6-month project, we’d pixel-perfected grids, typography, hierarchies, components, colours and many other UI elements. As well as the recommended implementation of a digital strategy and improved focus on real users to improve conversions.

Get in touch to see the results, as they are still being implemented and are under NDA.