STEPS Centre website

STEPS are a global research and policy engagement centre funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), bringing together development studies and science & technology studies.

I was approached to rebuild their website as they wanted to reduce the high bounce rate and increase user engagement with their content. The previous site was very dry and with the site being particularly text-heavy, I decided to take a different approach.

The first thing I introduced was a more image-led approach and a colour palette. This was to help users orient themselves within the site. I used related-content to keep users on the site and sub-menus for each page content type. Another strategy to keep people onsite.

Main content types were further sub-divided by category to make the content more accessible.

The site also features a series of one-page microsites that make up their global consortium. This was reached through an HTML5 responsive map or main navigation. I worked with colleagues across various timezones to establish and build the initial content for this section of the site.

Feedback from internal stakeholders was very good and yes, bounce rate reduced and engagement went up.

Visit the website here; https://steps-centre.org/