Sizewell C: Works Tracker & DCO Portal
The brief
We’ve been working with the Sizewell C team since 2022, designing and building sizewellc.com, followed by the Accommodation Management System (AMS).
In 2024, we were approached by the Community Relations team to overhaul the SZC Works Tracker and DCO Document Portal websites. These sites had been in existence for several years and did not reflect the new digital identity we had established for the Sizewell C brand.
As well as redesigning these sites and bringing them into our hosting ecosystem, this was an opportunity to enhance the functionality, improve the overall user experience and ensure both sites would be fully responsive.
UX embellishments
We decided early on that the DCO Document Portal would only require a ‘light touch’ redesign. Form would very much follow function with this site and the basic functionality – hosting various Development Consent Order (DCO) documents which users could search for by keyword – wasn’t broken so why fix it?
We focused our efforts on refreshing the visual identity, streamlining the site’s navigation and making the homepage more visual and intuitive. Another goal, for this site and the Works Tracker, was to ensure there would be no learning curve for the content admins. While the front-end would look different and offer an improved user experience, we made sure the CMS area would be consistent and familiar for those managing the sites day-to-day.
Powering up the Works Tracker
The primary aim of this project was to enhance the SZC Works Tracker website, not just the look and feel but the functionality too.
The basic functionality was already in place, allowing users to search for projects of interest by specifying parish/location, activity type and scheme filter criteria on a map or as a list. We gave this functionality a few tweaks but it was essentially fit-for-purpose.
Tracking the changes
We performed a UX/UI audit and found opportunities to streamline the site structure, information hierarchy and page navigation. Rather than having 3 separate pages, we decided to merge the ‘About’ and ‘Track a Project’ pages into the homepage so visitors could immediately discover the site’s purpose and get straight into tracking projects.
We also gave the ‘Latest Info’ page a revamp, introducing filters and vibrant colour-coding so news posts could easily be found based on activity type. News pages were styled to match the appearance of news posts on sizewellc.com for consistency. We also introduced colour-coding into the Project pages to help with user recognition and improve the visual appeal of these simple pages.
The CMS area was enhanced with a custom reporting dashboard that would allow content admins to report on key ‘Project Stats’, such as most popular locations, activity types and schemes, number of subscribers, total alerts sent, etc. We added visual charts for intuitive data analysis, date range filtering and an export function.
Email and SMS alerts
The biggest enhancement was the ability for interested parties to register to receive email and/or SMS alerts whenever a relevant project is added or updated. We built a simple, intuitive subscription service where users could register, set their preferences (e.g. locations, activity types or schemes of interest) and manage those preferences. We also made it easy for users to unsubscribe and/or delete accounts should they no longer wish to receive alerts.
Future work
Our next task is to extract the SZC Harbour Authority page from the Works Tracker site and create a standalone micro-site specifically for marine activity. Watch this space!
