New Site for the Lord Chancellor's Department
by Mike Wicksteed
Subsequent note from Mike Wicksteed, 1st July: There are a number of content updates we need to make to our site as a
result of the creation of the DCA. As a result, our launch date will be a
little later than hoped, but we are still on track for a Summer launch.
Six years ago, the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) tentatively dipped its toe in the Internet pond and launched a website (www.lcd.gov.uk). Designed by a UCL student, Stuart Tupper, during his summer vacation in 1997, it was relatively simple. However, it has proven surprisingly resilient and apart from a great deal of new content, it still looks much the same today. Technically though it is a different animal, now complying with most of the Cabinet Office’s guidelines for government websites. Whilst in 1997 it attracted just over 1,000 weekly unique accesses, today the site averages in excess of 31,500 a week.
For the first two or three years, we managed the site on a part-time basis. Stuart authored pages from his home in Essex and I edited these, in addition to my ‘real’ job as the Department’s chief press officer. Since 2000 we have built up a small but very professional web team to manage the website, comprising a technical web manager, Catherine Arthur, two web developers and our most recent addition, a content manager, Philip Golding.
This team has been the springboard for our new website which we are hoping to launch in June. That may sound rather vague, but predicting web launches is an inexact science so I will not be rash and name the date just yet!
To create the new site, we engaged an external web development company, IconZest. Obviously it will have a new look, but more importantly the users will experience a more outward looking website than at present.
It will include new navigation, far better access for users with disabilities and an awareness on our part that the days of producing a website primarily for lawyers and academics are now behind us. Our former narrow user requirement has expanded to incorporate virtually even man, woman and child in the UK.
In reality LCD is now the department for justice, rights and constitution. Since the elections in June 2001, the department has assumed a myriad of new responsibilities far removed from the world of legal aid, management of judicial matters, and civil and criminal law policies. Amongst other responsibilities, our new-look Department has shouldered Human Rights, Freedom of Information and Data Protection, Data Sharing, Electoral Law reform, Lords reform and a bundle of constitutional matters. We are building a unified court administrative structure in England and Wales and soon we will be taking over the administration of all tribunals in the UK.
Working with external web consultants has been an illuminating exercise. Their attention to detail threw up fascinating subtleties, such as selecting the most suitable visual identity for an LCD web site. It is not just a whimsical matter of picking a new colour scheme - we also have to ensure that the scheme instils confidence in LCD as an organisation. Hopefully we have done this, in using blue tones in combination with other sober (but not boring) colours, to act as a good confidence builder for the user.
Site images have been selected to reflect a clear notion of clarity, balance, direction and consistency. Consideration of browser compatibility, screen resolution and the use of cascading style sheets are all part of the new equation. In addition, we are trying to adhere strictly to the Cabinet Office guidelines, especially with regard to accessibility.
A Content Management System (from RedDot) is being introduced to manage the new site and we will use a restricted number of templates or page layouts to help provide cohesion and commonality across the site. This should improve the management and processing of ever-increasing quantities of departmental material. Although we will be limiting access to the CMS initially to the members of the web team, we aim to roll it out later to selected users within LCD.
A great deal of time has been spent working on site navigation and we ran a series of usability tests for a range of potential users from judges to members of the public. As mentioned above, by focusing on users we are attempting to structure the site for them rather than for ourselves.
We are continuing to maintain and update our current site and at the same time we are ensuring that all new content is migrated to the new website: running the two sites in tandem until launch is a big job in itself. But, in addition, we are working to improve the level of information contained on the site, so as better to describe the many roles and responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor's Department.
Hopefully, our users will find the effort worthwhile. I am confident that by this summer, LCD will possess one of the better UK Government web sites. We would welcome your comments!
Mike Wicksteed is Head of External Communications at LCD, mike.wicksteed@lcd.gsi.gov.uk.
Back to Contents.