A bit of history
Sheffield Is My Planet is a campaign run by Sheffield City Council to encourage Sheffield’s public, private, community and faith sectors to take action to reduce carbon emissions within the city. Launched a couple of years ago, it was identified that the existing site and material were simply not up to the job… all a bit clichéd and not particularly engaging or up to the task in hand.

A focused site
The site could easily have been a simple silo of government issued information. It could have been complex and calculated lots of figures relating to CO2 that may, or may not mean much to anyone. However this would have missed the point, largely because these things already exist in large numbers on t’interweb and secondly because this initiative isn’t about that.

The part of the brief we decided to focus on was the concept of citizens making a promise to do their small bit for the greater good. It was something we refined down to a tight, straightforward process which makes it easy to engage, and ends in the user not just filling in a form and forgetting about it (to be filed in a dusty draw in a council office) but being given advice on how to achieve their promise; information about the resources the council has available (from all departments) to help them, and making it easy for them to tell all their friends and family about it.

The social aspect was very important – the promises are about making a public statement, and we encourage users to share this with their online friends.

Design
It was a pleasure to have an almost blank canvas, a rare opportunity indeed and one to be cherished. The only factor in place that we had to work with was a logo. So it fell to Rocket to create the concept and design.

Our response was to create an environment that offset (there’s a pun in there somewhere!) the corporate feel of the logo by developing a rich, warm and welcoming environment representative of Sheffield as a place. The simple reason for this is that the stake-holders are about as broad as you can imagine, everyone from child to grandparent needs to be able to understand and engage. It was also intended to be fun – something often missing from “serious” public sector communications. Each promise is attached to a floating hot air balloon; you can browse through the promises filling the air above Sheffield’s skyline.

The website landscape accomplishes the desired effect and has already (only two days after launch) come in for high praise – we love it here and look forward to developing it in the future.

SIMP homepage

My promise

All the promises

To make your promise, and to check out Rocket’s fine work visit Sheffieldismyplanet.com

Wanting to place the dazzling images at the heart of the exhibition material, rckt began work on creating a piece that truely showed the images at their best.

The pictures are stunning images in their own right, but have a real scientific value too, as they originate from ESTOOLS’ ongoing research projects. Image creators provided a creative title for each of their pictures, illustrating their artistic vision, and a scientific description, to remind audiences of the origins of the image. Artistic value is accessible to a wide audience, and as a neutral expression of scientific reality the pictures promote thought and discussion without wielding influence.

Image credit: Josef Jaros

We commenced our search with high hopes, but these hopes were soon surpassed when we first viewed what is now rckt’s new home.

Rckt is now based in Broomhall, not simply the suburb known as Broomhall but the actual hall dating from the 15th century, that gave this area of western Sheffield it’s very name.

Our main studio is graced with 15ft ceilings, and a dozen 12-pane Georgian sash windows that flood the space with natural light. This provides the team with a wonderful working environment.

However, Broomhall is not only graced with a rich history it also played a pivotal role in the development of Sheffield as a creative city. Broomhall is where the late David Mellor first created his successful cutlery business. It was whilst at the hall that Mellor established himself as one the UK’s most influential 20th century designers.

Rckt is proud to be continuing this tradition of design excellence and bringing creative industry back to the heart of the old building.

Everyone is welcome at anytime to pop in and see our new home.

Rckt’s new contact details:

Rckt
8-10 Broomhall
Broomhall Road
Sheffield
S10 2DR

0114 30 30 100
info@rckt.co.uk

In short, they quite like architecture.

Rocket worked once again with brand creatives Peter & Paul to deliver a new website that offers the Architecture Foundation a new online platform to inform and engage with their many audiences.

The AF run an exciting programme of events and projects in partnership with a diverse range of partners that include; Arts Council England and Tate Modern in London. A major requirement for the new website was to fully exploit social media to promote this programme of events.

Rckt has delivered a website that not only showcases Peter & Paul’s crisp new graphic identity, but uses video content, social media, book marking and sharing technology to deliver the AF’s content to as wide an audience as possible.

A crucial element to the project was the creation of e-newsletters, that allow the AF to communicate directly with their members, these closely follow the new visual style and pull new visitors to the content of the website, delivering a major stream of new visitors.

Home page of Architecture Foundation website

View Site here: Architecture Foundation

The HSE website holds an almost unimaginable wealth of information. Everything from cutting edge scientific papers on the management of nuclear material to videos showing care workers how to safely remove latex gloves. The website contains almost 50,000 pages of material all of which needed to be carefully and simply presented.

Here at rckt we believe in intelligent design, we consider every colour, every line, every word of our design. As a result our design process is iterative, with concepts and solutions created through an evolution in design. Our designs have a beginning, middle and end.

The evolution of the HSE homepage design

In the first iteration our focus was on adding content and beginning to organise it into logical areas on the page. This exercise quickly showed us that the main challenge was to convey the variety available on the site, without confusing people. By the next version things were beginning to feel more organised. Columns of similar content had been created and background colours were being used to group content together. By the final version a highly usable solution had been created. The home page has a hierarchy and the main areas of the site are obviously displayed. The design handles the variety of content in a clean unambiguous manner.

Simplicity increases intuition
By looking at rckt’s design approach to the header of the HSE website it’s clear to see our belief in intelligent design. Here simplicity is the key. When faced with too many options a web user will quickly get confused. Originally the HSE header contained 21 elements all competing for attention, we reduced this to 10, without compromising usability.

Subtle, but necessary design choices were also made to improve the presentation of the head. These include a new approach to the navigational tabs, a new treatment of the HSE logo and the introduction of a gradient that emphasises the tabs.

The old version of the header offers too much choice

The new cleaner version presents distinct options for the user

Based on the former location of the Electro Works, this building is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most inspiring offices spaces in Europe, gaining coverage across the globe. With a unique “Helter Skelter” installation, that can take occupants from the 3rd floor to the ground floor in 7 seconds, the offering is something very special.

With a project as prestigious as Electric Works we were looking for digital specialists that we could trust. Rckt were exactly what we needed, and more. They gave the project a suitably impressive online presence, giving Electric Works the prominence it deserves.

Toby Hyam
Electric Works

The site works not only as an introduction to the brand and space, but is an integral part of the internal systems for both occupants and management alike. From online conference booking to hiring equipment, all can be done with consummate ease. The site was an integral part of creating the buzz surrounding the build and launch.

Electric Works: Helter Skelter and external shot

www.electric-works.net

www.peterandpaul.co.uk

Sheffield City Council has recently embarked upon a major project to transform the way they use the Internet to deliver services and information. Learning of rckt’s specialist skills with intelligent design solutions the Council asked us to help them put their users at the heart of the review.

Firstly rckt had to build a logic around the process, investigating the purpose and content of the existing website, in order to learn what kind of user we needed place at the centre of the project.

Analysis of web usage feds into exploratory workshops

A review of web usage, analysis of user feedback and population research then led to the creation of web personas. These personas allow the project team to think like their users, humanising the design process.

The personas created for Sheffield City Council

In a large organisation such as ours it is often difficult to keep sight of our end-users. The tools that rckt have given us allow us to do just this. Based on logical assumptions the personas also combine clever insights and real personal information, allowing us to get into the minds of our target users.

Julie Bullen
Head of Customer Services, Sheffield City Council

Image by: timparkinson

It’s an often quoted fact that more graduates stay on in Sheffield than in any other UK city, and Sheffield regularly tops the charts when it comes to best student city. The heart of the ‘Sheffield Made Us’ campaign encourages students, past and present to share their memories and experiences of how their time in Sheffield made them who they are.

Rckt created a suite of above the line material to support the campaign which included an overall identity, You Tube channel, print advertising, outdoor media and online banner advertising.

So, if you happened to study the University of Sheffield and have some great memories to share why not visit their You Tube channel and submit your own memories!

http://www.youtube.com/user/SheffieldMadeUs

Organic growth over ten years, up to two hundred updates every month and at least 30,000 pages. The structure of the HSE’s website has a lot of responsibility on its shoulders. Unfortunately the structure can no longer cope, resulting in a confusing, often disorientating user experience.

Rckt we’re asked to create a web structure that delivered an engaging and intuitive user experience. To tackle this seemingly daunting task rckt employed our tried and tested information architecture model.

We base all our decision making not on gut feel or intuition, but on solid facts and objective reason. The result? Exciting design backed by a watertight rationale. So where did we begin with the HSE?

The rationale behind rckt’s approach

Alongside a team from the HSE rckt embarked upon a series of structured workshops to define and manipulate the vast quantity and variety of information into a logical structure.

Site Mapping in Progress

Rckt’s iterative workshop method delivers a user-centric logic to information architecture

This process has created a completely new approach to the structure of the HSE website, categorising all information into five distinct subject areas. These top-level areas give the user an instant overview of the whole site, allowing them to make informed decisions about where to go within the site.

The five global subject areas developed for the HSE

Over recent years the University had been creating video content, but this needed bring together into one powerful online home.

Rckt know us very well, and have a intrinsic understanding of our brand and its values. They have brought this brand understanding to the fore in creating a single home for our online video content. This gives us a great platform to use for student recruitment across the world

David Stanley
The University of Sheffield

Youtube Channel