Exceeding accessibility standards for the public sector.

Essex PFCC’s website was dated, clunky, and vulnerable to cyber attack.

The Problem:

Police Crime Commissioners require a point of contact that is user-friendly and accessible to all constituents of all abilities.

Essex PFCC senior management recognised their current website was not as user-friendly as it could be. Feedback from visitors to the site was poor; many struggled to find the information they were looking for. The site also posed numerous accessibility issues, including barriers to those requiring assistance with visual acuity.

Its open-source WordPress Content Management System (CMS) relied heavily on plug-ins for functionality. This kind of system is vulnerable to attack if its plug-ins are not updated or ‘patched’ regularly. Its outdated coding and design elements were the final nails in the coffin. This website was in desperate need of a Formation overhaul!

Digital Revolution:

Services

Consultation
Branding
Graphic design
Web design and development
UX design & user testing over and above WCAG 2.1 AA Standards

Meeting Public Sector requirements

At Formation Media, we understand the unique set of requirements imposed on public sector websites and the challenges faced by service providers in meeting these strict criteria.

We work closely with Police, Fire & Crime Commissioners, providing innovative websites and branding to improve their relationship and communications with the public.

Consultation and Evaluation

A key reason for updating the Essex PFCC website was its poor user experience, making navigation frustrating and time-consuming.

To address this, we carried out an in-depth usability analysis, tracking site traffic and identifying problem areas using Google Analytics. This revealed the most-visited pages and sections that were causing users to leave. Heatmaps further highlighted user behaviour—where they moved, clicked, and scrolled—helping us refine design elements for better engagement.

We also assessed site performance across mobile, tablet, and desktop to enhance accessibility, ensuring a seamless experience for all visitors. Lastly, an SEO evaluation provided insights into on-page and off-page improvements, optimising search visibility and helping users find information more efficiently.

UX design: Exceeding WCAG 2.1 AA Standards

As designers and coders, we focus heavily on user experience (UX) and User Interface (UI), making sure the websites we create are not only modern and easy on the eye, but also accessible and functional. The user’s journey is always a top priority; finding content in the fewest number of clicks is the aim.

Using insights from the consultation and evaluation stage, a detailed website schematic was developed for the new PFCC Essex site. After multiple revisions to ensure intuitive navigation and clear content structure, a UX design was created to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards across mobile, tablet, and desktop. In some areas, the design exceeded these standards, achieving WCAG 2.1 AAA by optimising colours, contrast, and font sizes for enhanced visual accessibility.

Website Development

Before web development began, Formation selected CRAFT CMS, an open-source, headless Content Management System (CMS) known for its user-friendliness and long-term adaptability. Unlike WordPress, CRAFT enhances security by separating site content from its online display, making it more resilient to cyber-attacks—an important consideration for many PCCs. This security is further strengthened by Formation’s reinforced secure host servers, ensuring a robust and future-proof website for the Commissioner.

We created a slick and responsive online platform that exceeds WCAG 2.1 AA Standard, allowing people of all abilities to access the information they need quickly and easily in a way that works for them.

To date, we have maintained a flawless security record, with no breaches ever occurring on any of the websites we have built and currently host on our servers. David Dunlop, Formation Media

Watch this video to find out more about the benefits of Headless CMS over WordPress.

Headless systems are easy to update and maintain, a key advantage for the Essex PFCC team. To uphold high accessibility standards, we integrated an accessibility widget into the CMS, ensuring all content meets or exceeds WCAG 2.1 AA standards—rejecting anything that falls short, such as images without ALT text. Additionally, an approval process was implemented to prevent unscreened content from going live.

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