Communications delivering value and service. Not just messages.

The Design Council is the UK's strategic body for design – with the goal to help UK managers become the best users of design in the world, supported by the most skilled and capable design professionals. In 2002, Patrick led the review of all their online and digital communications and oversaw the implementation of the resulting strategy over the following 2 years.

We worked with all the directors and many senior managers to create a new value proposition and service design for the website. It was recast as one the Design Council's core services, rather than just another communications channel.

Strategic alignment - we analysed and achieved consensus internally on all the key objectives of the Design Council, how these related to particular audiences and how they could be delivered through online media. This resulted in a clear set of interrelated goals for the website.

Service design and architecture - we recast the scenarios of use and created a new architecture and navigation for the site that was around users' issues more than it was around design. As a result, the service was structured around users' mental models of the world instead of the Design Council's.

Learning design - we built a progression of design-awareness and understanding into the site content and journeys - from "I know I don't know what it is but I'm interested" to "I design things but I'd like to know more about...".

In the end, the usage figures of the site increased significantly and it attracted acclaim from designer and non-designer users alike. Whilst the site has undergone a major refresh since, the original core service concept remains.