Bournemouth Council

Bournemouth Council’s website had grown haphazardly over the years. The great services they provided were lost in jargon and waffle. 5000 pages of jargon and waffle. It was time for a rewrite.

The challenge

We had to help create a website that was useful to the people who needed it most: the people and businesses of Bournemouth. We also needed to manage the sensitivities of people who’d worked hard to create the original content. The first task was to build a team up for the challenge and agree a realistic deadline for the site to go live that we could all work towards.

What we did

Carried out interviews

We ran 20 consultation sessions with key figures at the council to get under the skin of particular user groups. These included: local residents, businesses, vulnerable communities, and visitors to the area.

Created the site map

As well as the key figures in across the council, we worked with the digital agency commissioned to build the site. They passed building the site map to us, acknowledging that we were better placed to define the hierarchy of pages.

Developed their Tone of Voice

We developed a tone of voice and an approach to clear, helpful digital content that met the needs of a wide range of stakeholders. By clearly defining the tone of voice, we helped the council avoid a mish-mash of styles.

Trained the team

To bring in-house content writers up to speed, we ran 10 training sessions on writing for a contemporary digital environment and using the clearer tone of voice.

The results

We put together a team of six writers and were able to deliver 1000 pages within 4 months, including briefing meetings and training.