News

This week sees the launch of the brand new Fearless website from our long standing client, Crimestoppers. Having worked with the charity on various campaigns, this new website aimed at young people was another exciting yet challenging concept for us to work on, thanks to the high usability and design demands brought on by this notoriously fickle demographic.

This involved taking the new Fearless brand and incorporating it into an user-centric information architecture and fully functional and young people friendly site.

In a bid to dispel the negative image of reporting crime, the uniquely branded site instils a sense of trust as a secure place for young people to learn about crimes and then anonymously report illegal activities via a tailored and secure online form.

For the design, we reflected the new Fearless brand, making the site hard-hitting, edgy and bright without patronising youngsters or trying to be "down with the kids". The angular shapes of the design kept our developers busy, who also concentrated on integrating it seamlessly with social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Practically, users can change the background colour of the design, giving it a fresh and personal touch. And on content pages, collapsible boxes keep copy organised and stop pages from looking text-heavy because as the participants from our focus group for the site's research say "it shouldn't feel like school - if there's too much text, it's just like school!"

In terms of the site's history, Crimestoppers launched its first dedicated youth site, ShadowCS, in 2007. The Crimestoppers Youth Team then spent 18 months researching the needs of young people, as well as the site's brand, to develop its 'Strategy for Young People'. Within this strategy are several new projects and partnerships, including the launch of the Fearless site to replace ShadowCS for 2010.

Visit the new Fearless site at www.fearless.org.