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The Charities Trust (www.charitiestrust.org) provides services for employers, employees and individuals who wish to fundraise through payroll giving, a unique bank account called the Freedom Account and an event sponsorship service called Sponsor-Me. Charities Trust wanted to enhance their public web presence and the services they provide to their clients online. Sigma implemented the Umbraco CMS to provide Charities Trust with the automation, publishing and management capability required to drive several web initiatives and allow them to quickly and easily create new websites for their corporate clients.

The project was delivered using an Agile methodology (Scrum) as Charities Trust wanted to build flexibility into the project. We worked closely with the stakeholders throughout the project from writing and developing the user stories through to iterative, daily testing of the platform. The project included:

• An enhanced user interface with simplified navigation
• Implementation of a new Umbraco CMS to interface seamlessly with the Charities Trust back end systems
• A single place for users, both public and corporate to access their account information and raise money for their charities
• Simplifying the process for a user to donate to both a charity and a sponsorship event through their Freedom Account
• The ability for charities to keep their information up to date through the web interface

• Defined user stories with the client covering all aspects of the system using MoSCoW to prioritise the requirements
• Ran an iterative, collaborative design process
• Implemented Umbraco with bespoke interfaces to web services to call user information on Payroll giving, Freedom Accounts and event management
• Integrated the site with a 3rd party payment provider to seamlessly manage donations and payments into user accounts
• Provided a one-stop-shop for users to access their Freedom Accounts, Payroll Giving accounts and Sponsorship pages
• Provided a framework for Charities Trust to create new highly configurable sites for their corporate clients

The Citizens Advice corporate website (www.citizensadvice.org.uk) offers a direct communication channel to the general public, providing vital updates on events, campaigns, policy work, publications and news. Although this is a trusted, reliable source of information, Citizens Advice felt it could be enhanced to encourage greater interaction with the audience, as demand for their guidance increases. This includes greater user of Web 2.0 techniques such as podcasts and videos, Twitter and Facebook integration, page sharing, blogs and forums to make the site more dynamic and engage a greater user community.

The project was delivered in collaboration with the Citizens Advice Web Team, working closely with stakeholders and end users at all stages, from information architecture definition, design, development and testing through to release.

• A greater focus on the organisation's campaigning and community activities
• A simplified task based navigation system
• The introduction of fresher section pages to assist users in finding important content
• The integration and promotion of the Citizens Advice social media channels
• Improvements to the font-size and colour contrast tools
• Re-development of the content and form pages to offer a more inclusive experience

Feedback on the new site has been excellent and we continue to work with Citizens Advice on their internal and public-facing sites to strengthen their overall web communication strategy. Gill Newman for Citizens Advice commented:

"Sigma helped us clarify our needs and provided us with lots of inspiration as to what shape the final product could take. The iterative design workshops in particular were fantastic. We watched our vision come to life and were able to influence the smallest of details really easily."

• Iterative design workshops
• Information architecture analysis
• Wireframes and design concepts
• User testing through eye-tracking
• Development using the LiveLink CMS

Sigma has worked with Citizens Advice in recent years to improve access to online information and applications, which are a vital part of the national service. Although we also work on improving their public-facing sites (www.adviceguide.org.uk and www.citizensadvice.org.uk) we recognised that their strongest resource is their bureaux network, the volunteers who work tirelessly across England and Wales and their internal teams focused on keeping ahead of legislation and social policy. The bureaux support extranet, CABlink, now supports that collective resource, ensuring information, events, campaigns, initiatives, policy, training, factsheets, forums, collaboration spaces and applications are at the fingertips of staff and volunteers throughout the organisation.

We worked closely with Citizens Advice stakeholders, end users and their Web Team to ensure the project met the following objectives:

• Improve communication across bureaux, for over 27,000 staff and volunteers
• Engage users through contemporary web communication and collaboration approaches
• Allow for future growth, new services, content and applications
• Remove redundant content areas, streamline the information architecture and improve the overall navigation for a site that had outgrown its previous structure
• Reflect and represent the entire organisation through better brand cohesion across all websites

Feedback on the new site has been excellent and we continue to work with Citizens Advice on their internal and public-facing sites to strengthen their overall web communication strategy. Gill Newman for Citizens Advice commented:

"It's a great step forward for us in terms of improving our key communication channel with the bureaux network which has over 400 members, many more locations and 27,000 staff and volunteers. The site is much more user friendly in terms of accessibility, look and feel and navigation and so we're really pleased with the development. The design also matches up to our external websites now, which gives a greater sense of brand and togetherness. We are planning to do a big push on the site to bureaux staff and volunteers in the next year and we feel confident now that we have a great tool to promote."

• User interviews and user survey
• Design workshop
• Information architecture and content audit
• Wireframes and design concepts
• User testing with an interactive prototype
• Development using the LiveLink CMS
• Design of launch materials

Diversity Role Models is a new charity who aim to lower the impact of homophobic bullying by taking positive gay and straight role models into schools. DRM were looking for a web partner with a focus on the charity sector, to help them establish a clear online message, target specific audiences with their services and integrate their already growing social media channels.

Mindful of their hectic schedule and budget as they worked to set up the charity, Sigma delivered with a short, sharp project to get the website up and running and allow DRM to build on the great work they had been doing on Facebook, Twitter and in their offline promotions. Sigma felt that Umbraco was the perfect solution as it offers out of the box features, ease of customisation and an opportunity to expand the website in the future as the charity grows. We helped DRM achieve the following:

• Within two weeks DRM received 1781 page visits and over 7,500 page views
• They went from zero to 250 Likes on Facebook within 48 hours
• We designed an engaging blog through which DRM received multiple comments and requests from people seeking to donate, get involved or act as a patron for the charity
• We implemented the Umbraco CMS that is very user-friendly, with simple tools for publishing content, adding images, updating the blog and changing the site structure as the charity grows
• We provided better control of their CRM data through simple contact forms for role model applications, workshop requests and newsletter sign up

"We are delighted to use Umbraco as our Content Management System as it has made managing the site quick and simple with no need for specialist skills to publish content. The website will help us to convey our message in the best way possible as well as enabling us to strategically target the type of individuals and corporate organisations we would like to attract. We are also incredibly lucky to have Sigma as our web partner. They have approached our project with a great state of mind, enthusiasm, creativity and professionalism. Not to mention the fact that they are simply a nice group of people who are very pleasant to work with".

Suran Dickson, CEO Diversity Role Models

• Design workshop
• Umbraco site development
• Social media integration
• Training and support

IHG recognised that there was a need for a site that offered central and trusted online resources for brand related information and assets, which could be easily accessed by several key audiences including third party suppliers, hotels and internal marketing teams who all required different levels of access. It was essential for the success of the site to ensure that each of these users was fully taken into consideration. Usability, accessibility and a positive user experience were crucial to the success of the site.

We provided IHG with a site that offers an accurate, up to date, and highly usable single port of call for key brand information. The design and functional solution has demonstrated our ability to take a complex business requirement and deliver an intuitive online solution, using our expertise in usability, accessibility and user experience. We delivered:

• User engagement and analysis to ensure that the users of the site are able to influence the end product and are bought-in to the concept
• Information architecture and wire frame layouts to produce a structure and navigation for the site that reflects the user journey
• Design concepts for the look and feel of the site and the individual brands
• User testing to ensure the solution developed by Global Technology meets end user needs and expectations
• Project Management of these activities, in close collaboration with the IHG management team and those of the other stakeholders engaged in this project.

"I've worked with Sigma for the past year, and their work on usability testing has been invaluable. Wireframes and prototypes really helped to bring the concept to life, and they conducted remote usability testing with a wide range of stakeholders across Europe and Asia. Sigma always deliver on time, and to brief, and provide very insightful advice and recommendations."

Leah Raper, eTools Manager for Global Guest Experience and Design

• User persona development
• User interface and interaction design
• Rapid prototyping
• Remote user testing
• Creative design

IHG's pioneering Green Engage application helps hotels to meet the sustainability challenge by enabling them to input and monitor their energy and water usage, and to sign up to suggested actions that will:

• Help them to reduce their carbon footprint
• Reduce their energy and water consumption

Sigma carried out a full root and branch redesign and development of the application to dramatically improve usability, enhance functionality, and ensure the system was far more effectively adopted by the hotel network.

We provided user experience expertise throughout the design phase, managing remote user analysis, requirements gathering, iterative creative design, user testing and rapid prototyping. Given the rich nature of the Green Engage interface, usability was paramount to the design approach – the Green Engage application itself is powerful, flexible and the reporting highly scalable, so the designs needed to cater for the diverse information that can be accessed through the interface, while remaining intuitive and relevant.

Feedback on the new version of Green Engage has been excellent and are delighted that the application scored 96.6% on the System Usability Scale (SUS) as independently tested by the Usability Centre at Southern Polytechnic University in Georgia. Carol Barnum, Director of the Usability Centre and author of several well-known books on the subject, confirmed that in all of the studies conducted at the institute they had "yet to see a score this high".

Laura Noctor, Director of Corporate Responsibility, said "Sigma's experience of how a user interacts with an online product has been invaluable. The new designs and interface take the user experience to the next level and we are confident it will enable us to sign up even more users in the coming year".

You can find out more about this initiative at the IHG corporate responsibility page.

• User analysis
• User interface design
• Rapid prototyping
• Remote user testing
• Creative design
• Application development

Hotel Solutions is an online application that provides hotels with the best tools, practices and ideas at IHG to help General Managers and hotel staff to understand areas of improvement in their business and meet their targets. The potential for driving improved performance is great, and as such it was essential that the application was engaging, easy to use, and highly user-centred.

Working closely with the IHG business and Global Technology teams, we delivered:

• User research and engagement globally through persona creation, workshops and surveys
• Visioning and solution design with key stakeholders and user representatives through Joint Application Development (JAD) workshops
• Development and testing of a user-centred Information Architecture that defines the structure and navigational model for the application
• The creation of wireframes and designs to develop the ‘look and feel' for the site
• Rapid prototyping and usability testing
• Development and implementation of the system working alongside Global Technology

Mariana Beevor, Director of Global Operations Planning and Performance said "Sigma delivered a truly high quality product". Reaction to the recently launched application from users has also been very positive. Feedback from the Leaders Lounge, an online forum for executives around the business globally, has included "What an awesome tool!" and "Well thought through...a 'no excuses' practical reference and talent development tool for hotel teams to benefit from and contribute to with their successful practices".

• User persona development
• Design workshops
• Rapid prototyping
• Information architecture
• Creative design

IMA approached Sigma to build a solution that would deliver content more effectively online and streamline the management and administration of content publishing. IMA felt the manual process of creating sites with accompanying CD-ROMs was time consuming and challenging and required a more automated approach to the production process. IMA had a pipeline of 30+ sites to deliver over the next 12 months and as such the requirement to deliver content far more efficiently, powerfully and cost effectively than the current model became critical.

We recommended Umbraco to IMA because it is affordable yet extensible, very easy to set up and extremely user-friendly. IMA are now able to manage and edit multiple sites within the same Umbraco structure, including the rapid re-use of page templates and images from their media library. They have also devolved some content publishing responsibility to their site sponsors, which has reduced the time it takes to launch new sites significantly

We developed and implemented the following functionality:

• A multisite setup to allow the client to run multiple sites from one install/instance of Umbraco. This also allows single copies of CSS stylesheets, page templates, flash banners, images and videos to be used across multiple sites
• A website template to enable the client to be able to copy/create new sites quickly and efficiently within Umbraco
• A style changer to enable a complete sites style to be changed dynamically at the click of a button
• File, content and media pickers to allow the client the ability to upload either Flash banners, images and videos across the sites
• Additional functionality and CSS styles in the default WYSIWYG editor to enable the client to edit content/text further (Font colour picker, text style drop down)
• A simplified and intuitive 2 level navigation system

Craig Smith, IMA Director commented:

"The team at Sigma are friendly, approachable and knowledgeable. They understood our requirements from the get go and helped us put a template driven content management solution in place that is robust, scalable, and most importantly easy to use! The new designs and improved usability make for a great user experience and thanks to Sigma and the Umbraco solution, we can now confidently focus on rolling out our sites across the world."

• Functional requirements analysis
• Iterative design workshops
• Information architecture analysis
• Wireframes and design concepts
• Development using Umbraco CMS