We will make improvements across the web channel.
These improvements go across services and are not owned by any single product team. They are essential to deliver services well. They contribute to achieving the web KPI – to increase search appearances by 50%, as an indicator of reach and quality.
Our focuses are:
- good design practice
- accessibility
- look and feel
- findability
- measurement
Good design practice
Our advice is good. It is a well-respected, mature product. We follow the government service standard and general good practice in user-centred design.
We have developed ways of working on advice where content designers:
- work together with subject matter experts to author content
- work with each other to review and improve each others' work
- work with user researchers to test and iterate content
- work with developers to improve user interface and functionality
- work in the open – sharing drafts and updates
- follow and develop the style guide
We will improve good design practice on the web by:
- taking established good practice and applying it to more content beyond advice
- continuing to improve and iterate approaches within product teams
- make sure content is tailored to the intended user – including language, structure, format, look and feel
- developing www.acas.org.uk/content-design – this is our documentation on how to create good content (it is hidden from search, but publically available to Acas teams and collaborators)
- taking part in OASIS campaign planning – working with Comms to understand the objective of any campaign, inputting into audience insights and scoring, and leading on strategy and implementation for the web channel
Accessibility
Accessibility is part of good design practice.
We are compliant with the law – Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. But we have a lot of unresolved issues in our accessibility statements. We need to fix these to be compliant with the legal standard – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.2 Level AA (WCAG 2.2 AA).
We will improve accessibility on the web by:
- making sure content designers understand it
- having content across the channel audited each year:
- manually by disabled testers
- by automated tools
- fixing any known issues within the year, before the next audit
- aiming beyond the legal minimum to meet the higher AAA standard
We will document our processes for designing, publishing, testing and maintaining accessible content.
Look and feel
The main website is clean and simple. It's also a bit boring. And Acas is looking to refresh its branding.
We will improve look and feel on the web by:
- making small, iterative improvements and putting them live quickly
- investigating more innovative change – looking at the websites as if we were creating them today
- translating brand guidelines into usable user interface guidelines
- considering the technical feasibility of standardising patterns and styles across platforms
- considering different formats and ways to best communicate
- focusing on engaging, usable design – using techniques to create a more attractive and modern-looking website, that do not compromise but improve accessibility
Findability
The main website is very strong on search engine optimisation. It was given a 100% score by the agency that audited the channel in preparation for the communications and external affairs strategy.
But we are already seeing the impact of algorithm changes and AI search summaries.
Other parts of Acas's web channel perform poorly in search. And people can struggle to find things once they are on the main website.
We will improve findability on the web by:
- optimising non-advice content to improve its performance in search
- structuring content so it can be understood and used in AI search
- expanding and iterating information architecture improvements beyond advice
- improving site search – both the engine and interface – to better understand and interpret queries and serve better results
- continuing to create and iterate advice on priority topics
Measurement
We use Google Analytics and Search Console to measure and analyse the performance of content. This is an essential part of designing and reviewing content across the channel.
In the last strategy period, we started asking for cookie consent. This is a legal requirement. It means we do not see usage data for approximately two thirds of users.
We do not yet have some detailed analytics set up. For example, we are missing detail on the notification form and ecommerce tracking on the booking site.
We will improve content measurement on the web by:
- implementing Google Analytics more fully across the channel
- keeping up to date with developments in Google Analytics and investigating more complicated features
- exploring the use of other analytics tools
- improving our cookie consent banner and interface
- reintroducing automated A/B testing
- investigating and responding to updated guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA)
Advice from the ICO on the DUAA is expected in Spring 2026. It is likely to move cookie consent for analytics from opt-in to opt-out. This will require changes to our consent model. It should give us more complete data by default.