Historic England
Historic England: Designing for Discovery, and Accessibility
Project Summary
About Historic England
A public body that helps to promote and protect England’s Historic Environment.
Project
Local Heritage Hub (LHH) is a new area of the Historic England website that helps people discover and connect with their local heritage. It provides dedicated pages for every city, town, and village in England, bringing together stories, imagery, maps, and heritage data in one area. Strict accessibility from the latest WCAG requirements were followed.
My Role
I worked as a web designer across the discovery and design phases. My role included creating high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes, collaborating with UX researchers, content teams, and third-party agencies. I was responsible for iterating designs based on usability testing, and presenting research insights and design decisions to stakeholders.
Scope: Mobile & Desktop Design
Sector: Public Sector / Heritage
Tools: Adobe XD
User testing: External (qualitative & usability)
Year: 2023
Problem statement
Historic England’s existing digital products primarily serve heritage professionals. This project aimed to attract novice audiences, encourage exploration, and modernise the experience while maintaining trust and accessibility.
Research & Discovery
We conducted user interviews across mobile & dekstop to understand how different types of users interacted with the designs.
Key Personas
Usability testing included participants representing both user groups, as well as intermediate users with some heritage interest.
The Local Heritage Hub needed to:
- Reduce dependency on insider knowledge
- Support confidence and self-guided discovery
- Give enough information to heritage profesionnals without overwhleming new users.
Susan
Senior Manager in a Heritage Organisation
Bridget
First Time User
Structure & Navigation Testing
Testing navigation and content
Our user testing evaluated how intuitively users could find the information they were looking for and whether they could understand the content and make decisions quickly.
Search vs Browsing Behaviour
Insights
Search was vital for users, particularly for desktop of which 50% bypassed landing page content and searched immediately.
Mobile users were slightly more inclined to scroll and explore content before searching.
Adjustments
While search functionality was valued by users, the “Places Nearby for You to Explore” feature was perceived as helpful but not essential, prompting further design adjustments to optimise focus on core user needs.
Page Structure
Insights
Long pages highlighted the need for clearer signposting for what a user can expect on the page and quicker access to key sections to reduce the amount a user had to scroll (mainly found on dekstop).
Adjustments
If content of the page was to stay the same, anchor links to easily jump to sections on the page were needed.
Testing the user flow
User flow testing looked at how easily people could complete key tasks and highlighted where friction or confusion emerged in the journey.
Orientation
Insights
Users expected immediate and relevant results when searching, and frustration increased when additional intermediary steps were introduced.
If a user didn’t find a dedicated page for their search, they were still willing to continue exploring at a county level, suggesting that meaningful alternative content helped maintain engagement.
Adjustments
Only show results page if there is no direct search result to link straight to.
Colour & Content Testing
Colour and visual design testing explored how different palettes and layouts affected users’ emotional response to the product.
Accessibility was a key consideration throughout this process, ensuring that every colour choice and visual element complied with WCAG 2.2 contrast and usability standards. Beyond meeting compliance, the goal was to create an experience that felt inclusive and comfortable for all users — including those with visual or cognitive impairments supporting Historic England’s commitment to accessibility as a public organisation.
Emotional Response, Accessibility & Hierarchy
Insights
Brighter colour schemes were consistently perceived as more welcoming, particularly by novice users.
Large images with short text reduced intimidation and helped users quickly understand the purpose of each page and page hierarchy improved content scannability.
Considerations
During the rebranding process, colour choices were carefully considered to ensure the design system had vibrant and visually engaging colours that would appeal to both audiences and brand.
Usability Testing
Testing Prototypes
Tested early concepts to understand whether the proposed content and design direction was easy for novice and professional users to understand and navigate.
Categorisation vs Exploration
Insight
Users preferred browsing through content rather than navigating through multiple layers of categorised content.
Adjustments
Only ‘stories about heritage in your local area’ were left categorised based on media type to allow for exploration.
Clairity, Confidence & Engagement
Insight
The intended audience were clear about the purpose of the page they were on and could navigate easily.
The main friction for novice users was understanding maps, especially on mobile. Also, specialist terminology caused confusion, highlighting the need to reduce reliance on insider language.
Adjustments
A shift to a more exploratory, story-led approach and a simplified map content was needed.
Outcome & Impact
Average engagement score of 7.58 / 10 from user testing sessions.
User testing validated design and content decisions.
Increased engagement of new users with heritage content through bright colours & storytelling by using local imagery.
We created accessible designs that targeted two vastly different users while maintaining the branding.