Senedd Cymru, Welsh Parliament: User experience design and website build

Transforming Digital Access for the Welsh Parliament

The Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru) set out on a bold mission: to replace its outdated digital ecosystem with a modern, intuitive platform that allows it to clearly communicate its role to oversee the work and spending of the Welsh Government. The goal was clear-make parliamentary information easily accessible, bilingual, and user-focused for a diverse public audience.

The Challenges

• Ground-up Rebuild: Create a fully modernized site from scratch to meet future demands.
• User-first Architecture: Redesign the information flow based on user needs rather than internal structures.
• Consistency at Scale: Ensure brand consistency across all pages and subsites while meeting varied audience needs.
• Content Migration: Migrate hundreds of thousands of legacy documents and links accurately.
• Bilingual Authoring: Deliver efficient, dual-language content management experience.
• Accessibility: Build a site that’s inclusive and aligned with accessibility standards.

Aspire’s Solution

Aspire’s digital team executed a full-spectrum solution, involving:

• Discovery-Led Design: Conducted workshops, user journey mapping, persona creation, and iterative testing to define an intuitive UX.
• Agile Website Build: Leveraged the Scrum framework for incremental development and real-time feedback.
• Custom Content Apps: Enabled automated and manual content import from business systems, with insights on reading age and time.
• Seamless Integrations: Connected with third-party systems such as modern.gov, Senedd.TV, and an Aspire-built business records platform.
• Bilingual Support: Delivered a fully bilingual CMS experience, now part of the Umbraco core offering.

Business Benefits

Aspire’s collaboration with the Senedd delivered a future-ready, user-friendly, and scalable digital platform. Key outcomes include:

• Exceptional UX/UI: Clean, professional design that makes information easily accessible across devices and platforms.
• Content Discovery: Encouraged deeper exploration, helping users find related information with ease.
• Cross-platform Consistency: Unified experience across main site and microsites with reusable templates and components.
• Flexible Content Authoring: Empowered editors to build visually consistent pages using custom-designed modules.
• Scalable Architecture: Supported high traffic and document volumes while maintaining performance and security.
• Real-time Search & Updates: Improved content discoverability with intelligent, fast, and multilingual search functions.