Championing Creativity and Culture
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland serves as the primary funding and development body for the arts in Northern Ireland. This essential organisation plays a pivotal role in championing creativity and making culture accessible to everyone. Eyekiller were appointed to deliver a flexible website that acts as a secure, accessible hub for artists, creatives and organisations to apply for funding and access vital resources to help them realise their potential.
Launch Project
Commitment to Accessible Design
At the heart of The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's digital presence lies a steadfast commitment to accessibility. Recognising that accessibility isn't merely an optional feature but a foundational principle, our focus on this project was to ensure that all individuals, irrespective of ability, can interact with the online platform seamlessly. Our design team undertook a comprehensive overhaul to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 standards, drawing inspiration from leading industry examples like the GOV.UK website and its renowned design system for accessible web design.
We implemented clear and concise error messages that guide users through unexpected turns when navigating the site. Displayed in plain English, these messages are easily interpretable by screen readers, ensuring accessibility for users with visual impairments. Additionally, subtle visual cues, such as borders, draw attention to potential pitfalls, providing further support for users with colour contrast issues.
User-Centred Navigation
The User-Centred navigation not only fosters a seamless online experience but also works in tandem with our SEO strategy to optimise discoverability. By prioritising intuitive navigation structures and clear signposting, the website ensures that the diverse user base can easily discover and access the wealth of content and resources available.
This strategic alignment between user satisfaction and search engine algorithms is pivotal. It not only enhances the overall user experience but also boosts search engine rankings, ensuring that the Arts Council's content is easily discoverable by both human visitors and search engine crawlers alike.
Enhancing the Author Experience
At The Arts Council, optimising workflows for the marketing team was crucial. Craft CMS's Live Preview feature provides real-time visual feedback, ensuring seamless content creation and publication. Its intuitive image editor streamlines tasks such as cropping and resizing, simplifying website navigation and plugin updates. Moreover, Craft CMS offers robust user management and permission settings, empowering the marketing team to efficiently assign roles, manage access levels, and collaborate seamlessly. This user-centric approach not only enhances productivity but also contributes to a dynamic online presence for The Arts Council.
Reporting & Core Web Vitals
Regular analysis of web analytics reporting is essential for maintaining an effective online presence. We meticulously reviewed key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the efficacy of The Arts Councils' digital strategies and pinpoint areas for enhancement. Integral to this analysis is the monitoring of Core Web Vitals, which encompass crucial user-centric metrics measuring loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of web pages. This data-driven approach ensures continuous optimisation to provide an exceptional user experience for their target audiences.
Our experience of working with Eyekiller was excellent...
"The Arts Council of Northern Ireland contracted Eyekiller in 2022 to create a new website for us, within a tight deadline. The new website needed to be easy to navigate, visually attractive, and meet the latest compliance standards for accessibility and data protection, with future proofing built in. The project entailed developing the new website from scratch, migrating a substantial amount of information, installing a new Content Management System, training our staff and providing a maintenance contract for the live site. Our experience of working with Eyekiller during the build was excellent; we felt we were in safe hands with Jamie and his highly experienced and professional team of developers and designers. They took the time to fully understand what we do, and our users’ needs. They worked with us to an agreed implementation plan offering some flexibility and importantly they ensured that all key stages of development remained on track, so that the project was delivered on time and within budget. We are delighted with our new website, which has surpassed our expectations, and is receiving really positive feedback from our stakeholders."
Success Stories
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