Essex Rivers Hub
Putting rivers first for Essex Rivers Hub
The Essex Rivers Hub is a team of Essex-based river conservation and restoration experts, working to help protect, secure and improve the waterways in their catchment.
The Essex Rivers Hub team approached Studio Seventeen in need of a new, refreshed website that clearly represented their dedication and hard work towards conserving their rivers. Requiring a re-engaged brand identity, the Hub wanted a new look and feel that would modernise their digital platforms.
A Brand With Ebb and Flow
Studio Seventeen went through a discovery exercise with Essex Rivers Hub to help us find out about their target audience, their values, and their aims for the project. This enabled us to create a digital identity that would best represent their needs and objectives.
The result is a clean, consolidated brand identity that is rich in colour and liveliness, as fitting with the rivers and water themes of the organisation itself. The palette was extended to include shades of blue, green and teal, with the natural wave shape introduced as an anchor for elements.
Accessible Brand Assets
Throughout the design process, we identified that accessibility was an important factor for the target user base and we designed all of the website assets to WCAG standards, as detailed in the style guide.
Taking inspiration from the movement of water, we created a library of patterns and photos to integrate into the identity of Essex Rivers Hub. The result is a user-friendly, modern platform that reflects the values, efforts and future goals of Essex Rivers Hub.
A Digital Platform for the Essex Rivers Hub Catchment
Essex Rivers Hub needed a new website that was easy to navigate and understand, to appeal to a broad range of users, volunteers and researchers. We worked closely with the Hub team to restructure their site map and simplify their on-page content to make it more user-friendly and accessible.
A Closer Look at the Essex Rivers Hub Website
Essex Rivers Hub wanted a space to showcase the projects they have undertaken to restore rivers and wildlife, utilising categories to filter the project data. Working in partnership with landowners, businesses, volunteers, government bodies and communities, they ensure that Essex rivers are valued by everyone and given a helping hand to thrive.
Integrating a bespoke interactive ArcGIS Map allowed the site to feel more engaging, inviting users to search for their own local rivers and find out key information about them.
Studio Seventeen have been fantastic to work with! They have worked diligently to bring our vision for a new and improved website to life, whilst migrating some of our original content and maintaining our user journey.Studio Seventeen were comfortable in explaining technical terms and processes that were outside the skillset of our team, never assuming our level of knowledge, and always willing to answer our questions. The team were flexible on how we worked together and kept the project on track with regular updates and check-ins.Dr Helen Dangerfield, Director, Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust
A Hub for All Devices
The website serves as a hub for the latest news, project updates, and ways to get involved. Fully responsive, sleek to navigate and easy to update, the Essex Rivers Hub website is fully optimised to perform well across all devices.
Outcomes
All statistics are derived from the initial twelve-month period post-launch.
Increase in total page views
Increase in mobile users
