Help me redesign Nesta’s website

I’m starting a redesign project of the Nesta website, and because the main aim is to create an OPEN, SOCIAL site which all Nesta staff can contribute to, I’m going to practice what I preach and blog updates on how it’s going, pitfalls and all.

Here’s what the site looks like now –

It’s lovely to look at, kudos to KentLyons, but its IA is based on Nesta’s v confusing internal structure (urgh), social media’s been bolted on, and user testing has shown that people find it tricky to know what we do and how we can be useful.

My main aim is to be totally transparent about this whole process and ensure that all the people who use the site, and want to improve it, are given a chance to get their voice heard. Nesta’s been way too corporate for too long – this is a chance for the real users like you to change how we do things.

Hopefully along the way you’ll also discover some useful stuff, like what to avoid and what works best. I’ll do my best to share it all.

P.S. If you haven’t already (and if you use the Nesta website) I’d be really grateful if you could take this quick designer survey – putting you in the designer’s seat so I get a feel for what real users think of us.