RNIB launches new accessible website

The launch of the new site is part of a wider change in RNIB’s branding, which has seen a subtle tweak to the logo’s ‘lozenge’ holding device and typography by The Good Agency, and the introduction of a new strapline – ‘supporting people with sight loss’.

The site has been designed to allow users with varying levels of sight difficulties to use it easily, and was developed with the help of a visually impaired consultant.

Key considerations in the site design included the colour palette and font-size, as well as streamlining the content to allow for an easy user journey.

Precedent was appointed to the project at the end of last year, and initially worked with the visually impaired consultant Leonie Watson, observing how she interacted with different sites and running through concept ideas with her.

Ed Richards, lead designer at Precedent, says, ‘We got lots of interesting insights. You have to have contrasting colours but we didn’t want to replicate the previous site, which was just solid colour everywhere.’

The new site uses left-hand navigation and a larger font – which Richards points out is ‘a trend anyway’ – which enables the site to be scaled for access across different devices.

The search function has been given more prominence, which the charity also hopes will enable it to get information on what their users are looking to find out and what parts of the site they’re using the most.

‘Our aim was to design something that was both beautiful and simplistic, proving that accessible doesn’t need to be visually uninspiring’, says Precedent.

’To meet the accessibility requirements, we have had to be even more diligent than normal and ensure that the site works for their users on both the front and backend of the website’.