The challenge
Hey Duggee is a flagship BBC children's show, with a huge global audience and legion of super-fans. The official website should be the source for all things Hey Duggee, however outdated functionality and content gaps were leading to frustrated fans and declining engagement.
With a 10th anniversary and new season ahead, it was time for a major revamp.
Key goals
• Create a richer, more immersive fan experience, encouraging exploration
• Implement a user-focussed content strategy, within brand style & tone
• Achieve audience growth targets
• Future-proof for longer term commercial ambitions
• Implement a user-focussed content strategy, within brand style & tone
• Achieve audience growth targets
• Future-proof for longer term commercial ambitions
My responsibilities
As UX Lead, I played a key role in planning and driving the project from inception to delivery, managing senior stakeholders, overseeing internal/agency teams, whilst leading the design and research in a hands-on capacity. This involved;
• Planning & stakeholder engagement
• Discovery research & strategy
• Workshop facilitation
• Requirements, wireframes & testing
• Creative direction & delivery oversight
• Concept creation for future phases
• Discovery research & strategy
• Workshop facilitation
• Requirements, wireframes & testing
• Creative direction & delivery oversight
• Concept creation for future phases
Outcomes
Phase 1 launched in July 2024 to an immediate positive uplift to page views, our primary key performance indicator.
• Page views up 220%
• Visits up 40%
• Unique users up 15%
• Visits up 40%
• Unique users up 15%
Read on for a more detailed case study...
1. Planning and ideation
The project kicked off with stakeholder interviews, helping to better understand the current state business ambitions, and uncovering many restrictions and challenges with the CMS.
A project plan was then put together with our partner agency to manage the ambitious timeline.
I then facilitated a series of workshops exercises with cross-functional teams to;
• Dig deep into internal needs, user data and what worked well with similar brands
• Ideate / explore future opportunities
• Prioritise ideas based upon alignment with business goals and user needs
• Playback WIP designs early for feedback.
• Dig deep into internal needs, user data and what worked well with similar brands
• Ideate / explore future opportunities
• Prioritise ideas based upon alignment with business goals and user needs
• Playback WIP designs early for feedback.
Collaborative workshops: For some team members and stakeholders, this was the first time they’d worked in this way. It was important to get them, involved early and take them on the journey to showcase the value and connect activities to business goals.
Concepts: I mocked up the best ideas from ideation sessions as to act as visual prompts and elicit more meaningful feedback.
2. User research and concept testing
Our research goals were to better understand the audience and test suitability of initial ideas so that we can confidently restructure the site, prioritise and launch new features.
Concepts were developed from workshop outcomes prior to creating a mixed method study with 4x areas of focus;
• A survey and analysis of design for children studies to understand users
• A card sort stress-testing proposed IA and navigation changes
• Impression testing feature concepts
• Examining analytics and Youtube trend data
Concepts were developed from workshop outcomes prior to creating a mixed method study with 4x areas of focus;
• A survey and analysis of design for children studies to understand users
• A card sort stress-testing proposed IA and navigation changes
• Impression testing feature concepts
• Examining analytics and Youtube trend data
Above: Questions and activities were thoughtfully crafted in UserZoom to qualify assumptions and provide insight via quantitative and qualitative data.This included working with the team to hypothesise a new information architecture to test.
Research findings provided a wealth of insights on our audience, both validating and invalidating assumptions and helping to guide where to focus efforts.
Recommendations: The report also provided principles, guidelines and recommendations for phase 1 (our immediate focus) and beyond. These included guidelines on how to best design and create content for children.
3. Defining quick wins for phase 1
Our first phase of activity focussed on content gaps, enhancing foundational areas such as characters and episodes.
I created wireframes for each core page template, referencing current and new proposals for re-usable components to reflect audience insights. These included the following areas of focus, intended to feed the imaginations of children, whilst also aimed to intrigue and delight parents;
• Visually engaging, bite-size information and opportunities to interact
• Show facts, popular culture references and easter eggs
• Onward journeys connect episodes and characters, encouraging deeper exploration, boosting SEO and e-store merch views.
• Show facts, popular culture references and easter eggs
• Onward journeys connect episodes and characters, encouraging deeper exploration, boosting SEO and e-store merch views.
Stress-testing wireframes:
The new components were essentially a library of re-usable building blocks. They catered for a variety of rich media such as; audio character quotes, video ‘best bits’ & themed image carousels. For maximum scalability, components were designed to be flexible for re-use across different contexts.
4. Crafting the experience
Designs were tested and refined, increasing in fidelity for development handoff.
Notable inclusions for phase 1;
• Digital style guides and a broad component library
• A brand new homepage and landing pages for characters, episodes, crafts and games
• 124x character pages and 195x episode pages with SEO enhancements and onward journeys
• Hundreds of assets for the team to build beautiful pages without design and development support
• Digital style guides and a broad component library
• A brand new homepage and landing pages for characters, episodes, crafts and games
• 124x character pages and 195x episode pages with SEO enhancements and onward journeys
• Hundreds of assets for the team to build beautiful pages without design and development support
Example character and episode pages: showcasing the breadth of components created for different content types.
Bringing the world to life online
Throughout the project I had the honour of working directly with the show creators and talented BBC Studios creatives. Together, we created 100s of character and episode assets and associated backdrops to reflect scenes and locations from the show.
Best of video reels, image carousels, craft activities and more were carefully crafted, offering fans a curated experience true to the brand. This was a mammoth undertaking requiring a mixture of being on the tools for hands-on support, creative direction and oversight.
Guidelines and oversight
Consistency with assets was a particularly challenging undertaking. I worked closely with brand guardians, team members and the partner build agency to find tangible solutions, offering exemplars, guidelines and direction throughout.
This ensured Important considerations such as;
• Character scaling, colours and tone of voice were true to brand
• Components were built to requirements
• Assets were implemented correctly into the CMS
• Accessibility requirements such as colour contrast, alt-tags and assisted tech were followed
• A consistent experience is provided to all users, regardless of device or browser
This ensured Important considerations such as;
• Character scaling, colours and tone of voice were true to brand
• Components were built to requirements
• Assets were implemented correctly into the CMS
• Accessibility requirements such as colour contrast, alt-tags and assisted tech were followed
• A consistent experience is provided to all users, regardless of device or browser
5. Outcome
The digital brand team are now armed with a library of components and guidelines to construct new, more immersive content experiences for fans in time for the new season and other important upcoming brand moments.
The flexibility of the component library has also reduced support requests design and development and paved the way for future business opportunities.
Initial Impact
Phase 1 of the website revamp was successfully launched in July 2024. Within two weeks we had exceeding the page views target by 150%, with all other metrics up. Traffic has remained at a new higher baseline since the launch of the revamp.
Phase 1 of the website revamp was successfully launched in July 2024. Within two weeks we had exceeding the page views target by 150%, with all other metrics up. Traffic has remained at a new higher baseline since the launch of the revamp.
Above: A sneak peak at some future concepts being explored.
Future enhancements
In future phases the site will be enhanced further with a hub for campaign activity, new content types, unique interactive games and extended functionality to support a club loyalty program. This will coincide with the introduction of in-line advertising and e-store onward journeys.
In future phases the site will be enhanced further with a hub for campaign activity, new content types, unique interactive games and extended functionality to support a club loyalty program. This will coincide with the introduction of in-line advertising and e-store onward journeys.
Ongoing optimisation
We will also be keeping a close eye on analytics and undertake usability testing to optimise the experience further to continually improve the online fan experience.
We will also be keeping a close eye on analytics and undertake usability testing to optimise the experience further to continually improve the online fan experience.
Huge thanks to...
Guerrilla, Emily and the digital brand team, Pippa, our product and engineering legends and everyone else involved in making this happen.
Guerrilla, Emily and the digital brand team, Pippa, our product and engineering legends and everyone else involved in making this happen.
6. Lessons Learned
• Shaping visually iconic TV brands online requires an extra level of attention to detail and craft
• A deep understanding of the brand world is integral to getting buy-in from show creators
• Managing internal and external teams across different time zones requires a solid project plan
• Designing for children has considerations beyond just meeting basic accessibility requirements
• User testing with young children with low literacy is possible, and is a lot of fun but requires a different approach
• A deep understanding of the brand world is integral to getting buy-in from show creators
• Managing internal and external teams across different time zones requires a solid project plan
• Designing for children has considerations beyond just meeting basic accessibility requirements
• User testing with young children with low literacy is possible, and is a lot of fun but requires a different approach
