Bespoke Microsite for Social Mobility Commission

Although the financial sector is our key clientele, our ability to create strong offline and online material is not limited to this sector. This time the team at Form Agency created a bespoke microsite for Social Mobility Commission.

Social mobility is the link between someone’s occupation or income and the occupation or income of their parents. Where there is a strong link, there is a lower level of social mobility, meaning that they are less likely to be able to move up the social ladder. Where there is a weak link, there is a higher level of social mobility opening up more opportunities throughout their life.

The Social Mobility Commission is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Department for Education in England. They monitor progress towards improving social mobility in the UK. Besides, they promote social mobility in England. They released a tender for the build of a new microsite to promote their new toolkit. It’s presented as a guide for the business community.

So, we had the opportunity to complete the pitch process for the tender. And, pleased to find out that our vision and team had won.

Initial Ideas

The microsite required the usual areas for a website – fully responsive design, clear brand identity applied throughout, case studies, news/events areas and ease of use. However, it also needed to include a bespoke area for each section of the Toolkit. Most importantly, the inclusion of an organisation directory that would allow companies to upload their information to the website. They also requested a Content Management System for employees of the Social Mobility Commission team to update news, events, imagery or text easily without the help of Form.

Using the Commission’s existing brand style and guidelines, we put together a comprehensive mock-up of the website using Adobe XD. This allowed their team to get a feel for how the microsite would look and the journey potential users would take. On approval, we adjusted the designs around the client’s comments and prepared for the development of the site within WordPress.

Testing and Tweaking

Alongside the Social Mobility Commission team, we ran the built microsite past a group of testers for feedback. As the sites public release deadline was set, it was crucial to ensure that any bugs or journey issues are picked up and fixed quickly. The testers came from several different sectors as well as from companies associated with social mobility. So, this gave us a broad perspective on how a multiple number of audiences view it.

Release

After taking onboard the tester’s feedback, we finalised the microsite and made it ready for release. The launch date was a success and was accompanied by an official release event to promote the new Toolkit.

“The team at Form were a pleasure to work with. They turned our Employers Toolkit on Socio-economic Diversity and Inclusion – a static PDF – into a dynamic microsite and came to the project with creative suggestions to engage our audience. The team worked at pace to fulfil difficult deadlines and did so with courtesy and professionalism. They kept both themselves and our team to time, while both sides developed content iteratively. We are incredibly happy with the result.”

Lindsay Turner Trammell, Head of Policy and Innovation at the Social Mobility Commission

Since we made the microsite, it has received several directory entries from organisations. This confirms a strong user journey and ease of use. The strong brand application and clearly presented Toolkit information continues to bring new organisations to the site. Last but not least, it is helping push the awareness of social mobility within the vast business community and sectors.

You can find out more information about the Social Mobility Commission via their GOV.UK page, the Toolkit microsite and on Twitter.