The North Staffordshire Community Rail Partnership (NSCRP) is an organisation dedicated to enhancing the role of local railways in supporting community cohesion, wellbeing, and economic growth. Their mission emphasizes the importance of sustainable travel and the potential of railways to contribute to social and environmental objectives.
However, their Community Rail Officers were facing significant challenges with an outdated website that was difficult to update and maintain. This, in turn, hindered their ability to effectively communicate their mission and engage with the community.
Recognising the need for a modern, accessible, and user-friendly online presence, the NSCRP (via Stoke City Council) put out an open tender for a comprehensive redesign and development of their website. Always on the lookout for great projects that align well with our ethical focus, Ethical Pixels and our partners at Lantos Business Solutions put together a proposal that the NSCRP thankfully liked enough to commission us to complete the work.
The website
The NSCRP required a new website that not only aligned with their branding and mission but also adhered to modern web standards and best practices. The project involved several key features and deliverables:
Key features
Responsive Design
A modern, fully responsive website design that reflects NSCRP’s branding, ensuring an optimal viewing experience across all devices.
Accessibility Compliance
Implementation of WCAG 2.1 AA standards to make the website accessible to a wider audience, including those with disabilities.
Interactive Route Map
Development of an interactive route map integrating existing artwork, linking users to detailed station pages.
Dynamic Content
A system to dynamically display supplementary data such as attractions, walks, news, events, and projects, enriching the user experience and providing valuable resources.
Administrative Features
Dedicated areas for key staff, annual documents, and reports, enhancing organizational transparency and communication.
Maintainability
A user-friendly backend allowing NSCRP staff to easily update and maintain the website, ensuring the content remains fresh and relevant.
Our partners at Lantos Business Solutions deliver high-quality technical and project management services to government and third sector clients. Chris (the Managing Director at Lantos) prides himself on bringing together a talented, experienced and committed team of senior professionals to ensure clients only get the best quality services. They also know what we can do, because we built their website!
Throughout our bespoke UX process, our partners at Lantos were able to bring an additional layer of quality, capacity and attention to detail to the project.
The collaboration between Ethical Pixels, Lantos and NSCRP resulted in the launch of a new website that not only met but exceeded the client’s expectations. Claire and Emma, the community rail officers at NSCRP, praised Ethical Pixels for their effective communication, adherence to budget and timelines, and post-launch support:
The NSCRP website redesign project exemplifies Ethical Pixels’ commitment to creating web solutions that are not only aesthetically pleasing and functional but also inclusive and accessible, to the standards expected by public sector bodies. We continue to support the NSCRP with ongoing content updates, regular site maintenance, backups, uptime monitoring and more.
This project has significantly enhanced NSCRP’s online presence, supporting their mission to promote local railways as a vital component of sustainable development and community wellbeing. Check out the website, and be sure to take a trip on their line sometime.
