The Royal Society

+22% engaged sessions

Laptop displaying homepage of Royal Society’s Science & Research web design, designed by Contra Agency

The client.

The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, dedicated to promoting excellence in science and tackling some of our planet’s most serious challenges.

The challenge.

The existing website was dated and difficult to navigate, with users often struggling to find the information they needed. We needed to completely redesign the site to improve navigation and user experience, while clearly defining the Royal Society’s work and its importance.

The strategy.

Execute internal and external interviews and surveys. Conduct site user behaviour, audience, keyword and traffic research. Produce a website that significantly improves site structure, content, design, and SEO.

Laptop displaying homepage of Royal Society’s Science & Research web design, designed by Contra Agency

What we did.

Internal and external research

The Royal Society has several different audiences so it was important to get the thoughts of as many website users as possible. We conducted both internal and external interviews and surveys to establish website user needs and challenges.

User personas

We created several personas for different types of users. These personas allowed us to scope in on the common themes from our research and tackle the problems that visitors were frequently facing on the existing website.

Clear messaging

The Royal Society’s work is both extensive and essential, but that wasn’t immediately apparent when visiting the website. We ensured that the home page clearly outlines the main programme elements and incorporated a prominent About Us section where users can learn more about the organisation and its mission.

Improved architecture

The website featured a wealth of useful content but much of it was being missed because of how difficult it was to find. We completely restructured the site, implementing a new main menu that allowed users to navigate by intent. This way, they could easily access content covering topics they want to learn more about.

Strong page structure

As well as the site overall, individual pages also lacked a clear structure. With the site needing to appeal to several types of users with varying levels of knowledge on certain topics, we organised the information on each site by complexity. We also ensured that links to similar content were clearly visible, directing users to other pages they might find useful.
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+22%

engaged sessions

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+100%

newsletter sign-ups

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+1m 41s

average engagement time

Contra provided an excellent service and support throughout the new website build process, working closely with our internal teams. We are very happy with the finished site.

Rob Rutter, The Royal Society
Rob Rutter Head of Digital Marketing & Engagement, The Royal Society
Ben Edge Contra Agency

Ben

Founder and Creative Director

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