Hilary Burrage

Hilary has a wide range of interests incorporating experience in many fields. These range from social policy through national and local politics, via the arts and cultural interests, and ends up in the sociology and history of science. She had yet to exploit the internet as a means of publishing her views and opinions, but was excited by the prospects of being able to do so, and at the prospect of prompting feedback and comment on her opinions.

The Brief
The challenge for Nick Prior Designs was obvious: get Hilary Burrage on-line as a social commentator. What was less obvious was how to present the wide range of ideas in a coherent manner so that readers could identify the various interests, and follow up on them.

The Approach
In the first instance, Nick Prior Designs designed and built a traditional weblog. Based upon Movable Type, the weblog simply presented a range of articles in a hierarchy of categories. They were sequenced daily so it represented a daily journal of ideas.

The intention was simply to get Hilary on-line, and then to review the site after visitors had found her and made comments. This first phase also provided an opportunity for Hilary to put some shape to her ideas herself – what structure made most sense for her own purposes. The sheer breadth of the material made this a particular challenge, one which I’m not sure we have concluded yet.

The Outcome
The site is now live and visitors are warmly welcomed! Phase 2 is already on the drawing board, and I suspect Phase 3 will follow shortly after that. The intention is to review the way visitors use the site and reflect that in the way new material, and existing articles are published. We’ll explore with Hilary whether her needs are best served with a daily Journal or, as we now suspect, with a more formally structured website that still enables formal and informal interaction by her readers.

This approach is made possible by the close consultancy-based working relationship Nick Prior Designs has with Hilary. While it would have been possible to define everything about the site up front, we would have needed to spend much time reviewing possibilities in isolation from the material, and in Hilary’s case the material is vitally important.

You can find Hilary Burrage’s website here at www.hilaryburrage.com.

Want to know more?
If you would like to know more about the approach Nick Prior Designs
takes with professionally orientated, content-rich websites, contact Nick Prior by email, or telephone on +44 77 67 23 81 88.