A website designed to provide support and information on lottery grant funding has been praised for its usability and use of social media by the judging committee of the 2009 IVCA Clarion Awards.
Described as ‘the world’s only communication awards promoting social inclusion, CSR, sustainable development and ethical debate’, the IVCA Clarion awards has ‘highly commended’ www.biglotteryfund.org.uk as one of the outstanding examples of best practice in website design in the public sector this year.
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) distributes half the money raised by the National Lottery for good causes. Top European digital agency Fortune Cookie (www.fortunecookie.co.uk) was tasked with improving the user experience of the BIG site to make the process of applying for lottery funding easier, more enjoyable and more informative. As a result of improvements made to the site, people applying for grants have reported finding it much more user friendly which in turn has resulted in huge cost savings for BIG.
“We are delighted to receive this recognition, which is testament to the hard work of Fortune Cookie and the BIG team.”
Claudio Concha, head of new media at BIG
Mario Tilney-Bassett, account director at Fortune Cookie, says: “BIG asked us to create a website that would appeal to grant applicants and that would provide a platform for discussion and the exchange of ideas between funding recipients. Throughout the development of the new site we have undertaken rigorous user testing to make sure that the user experience is as good as it can possibly be.”
“We’re delighted with the results – BIG is experiencing a massive drop in calls to their helpline from people who weren’t confident using the old site. By making the application process enjoyable and educational we’re helping voluntary organisations and individuals to make smarter applications for funding that are more likely to be successful.”
Claudio Concha, head of new media at BIG, said: “We are delighted to receive this recognition, which is testament to the hard work of Fortune Cookie and the BIG team. We will build on this success over the coming months, making the site even more useful to people who are in receipt of BIG funding, as well as those applying for grants. This will include even greater use of social media - we already have a presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr - and video, both to communicate the role of BIG and to facilitate the sharing of ideas between community projects in receipt of BIG funding.”