The Digital Archive was an unprecedented opportunity to work on a project of national importance. With drawings and plans dating back hundreds of years at Network Rail’s York Archive we were asked to help bring them to life online, enabling the world to share in our rail heritage. The real challenge was to create an information architecture and user experience that allowed visitors to move through the interlocking narratives of each drawing as seamlessly as possible. And of course, we wanted to show off the images in the best way possible!
We worked closely with the Network Rail team and our technology partners on the project, Virtusa, to get the best from every stakeholder through a series of regular and in-depth creative and UX workshops. The response and social media buzz at launch was staggering, with one tweet describing the site as ‘Beautiful’. We were delighted to have been part of a project with such national importance and immensely proud that it’s been so well received.
We’re delighted to be working with an organisation that sits at the very heart of the UK’s infrastructure to develop a digital presence for the 21st century. Our expertise in information architecture and user experience has allowed us to really deliver on the brand vision of being irreplaceable through a series of extensive enhancements to networkrail.co.uk. From the site-wide navigation to career matching tools, live departure boards to mobile platforms, we’ve helped to enhance the site at every level.
With the exciting developments taking place at Birmingham New Street, Network Rail launched a Flash website to keep everyone in the picture. But it soon became clear that the site needed to be updated on a regular basis and the Flash-based solution became increasingly unwieldy. Jacob Bailey created a brand new website that retained all the visual sparkle, but with the added advantage of a full content management system. Moving forward, Network Rail have been able to wow passengers and stakeholders, while keeping them up-to-date every step of the way.
