Understanding users to overcome legacy challenges

Watford Community Housing works closely with residents to ensure they deliver a continuously excellent service which heavily involves their website. To do this, their website needed a complete design and rebuild to meet both customer and stakeholder expectations, as well as their evolving business needs. IDHL were their agency of choice to undertake this project.

The existing site was difficult to maintain and update. Built on a bespoke CMS meant WCH were overly reliant on their previous agency to make changes. A new website was required to overcome these obstacles while fully embodying their new branding.

It was also integral to the project to reflect the growing ambition and complexity of the Group, which incorporated a commercial arm and several joint venture companies. With the launch of their new branding, there was an opportunity to build a site that provided control and flexibility to WCH’s marketing team.

Understanding their users: WCH wanted to engage real users in an effort to understand more about their challenges. The discovery phase of the project was key to achieving this. As part of our solution, we created user personas, conducted a UX workshop with key stakeholders alongside focus groups with tenants to understand how the new website could help overcome common challenges.

Developing required functionality: WCH already had a good idea of the functionality requirements and the areas of the website that needed improving which were confirmed during the research phase of the project. It was important for information to be presented effectively, and the website to behave intuitively, providing a simple yet effective user journey.

Implementing new brand designs: Alongside practical features, the site required a fresh and modern look, pushing the boundaries of what others have done in this sector. WCH’s new branding was key to this and we needed to effectively embrace it to better reflect the personality and culture of the business.

""We are really happy with our new website, which has been well received by customers and colleagues alike. We are grateful to NetConstruct for their support in helping to manage the whole project from start to finish, and for delivering a user-friendly, modern site that meets our brand aspirations."“

Iain Aubusson, Marketing and Communications Manager, Watford Community Housing