Chilvers Coton Heritage Centre
Creating an accessible hub to uncover Nuneaton’s history.
Overview.
Chilvers Coton Heritage Centre is based in a Grade II-listed former Free School, built in 1735 by the Newdigate family. They protect and preserve this historic building while sharing the story of Chilvers Coton and its local heritage through engaging and immersive experiences.
Their mission is to safeguard an important historic building, celebrate local history, and provide accessible, engaging heritage experiences that connect people with the past and with each other.
Brief.
Chilvers Coton Heritage Centre’s website was outdated, difficult to manage, and confusing for users. It no longer reflected who they were or what was on offer. Customers struggled to find information, book visits, or engage with activities, and staff found the system time-consuming and restrictive to update.
With guidance from the Arts Council, they were seeking a website redesign that clearly presents their heritage offer, raises awareness of activities and events, improves the user experience, supports bookings and donations, and helps grow their mailing list.
Response.
After conducting discovery with members of the on-site team, receiving a tour of the building to understand how things operated, and researching numerous organisations that faced similar challenges, it became clear this would be as much a branding exercise as a new website rebuild.
The existing website had a lot of fantastic content, with little flow or consistency and no distinctive look or feel, creating a largely forgettable experience for potential visitors to the centre. With this in mind, I unpicked their offering and grouped items into three clear buckets: history, education and community, which would form the primary flow of the site’s structure. Each section received its own colour, based on how we want users to feel when immersed in that aspect of the organisation: red for passionate about history, blue for a trusting educational environment and green for embracing life’s community spirit.
Alongside this, in line with other arts and cultural organisations, the website would follow a common hierarchy, making it feel familiar even if a user has never visited before. The ‘What’s On’ and ‘Plan Your Visit’ areas had to be intuitive and frictionless, whereas in areas like ‘Our Building’, there was an opportunity to create an engaging timeline.
To really bring the site into a modern environment, I leant on striking typography, subtle animation, large imagery and a responsive transparent navigation. Each of these changes made the site feel alive and satisfying to explore. Sign-posting and placement of CTA’s was also key, particularly on high-value pages like ‘Venue Hire ’, which drives crucial revenue. These decisions were designed to accommodate all ages, be painless for older users and inspiring to the younger generations.
At the heart of it all, every stage I asked myself, “Does this level-up the on-site experience as much as the online experience?” I wanted to make the website feel part of the centre, not a separate entity, which can happen all too easily. For instance, I took advantage of QR codes, which literally bridged the gap between the physical and digital worlds. These allowed visitors to continue their historical journey later, or seamlessly gather more information without breaking the immersion.
Results.
The heritage centre has entered a new phase, powered by an updated online-presence. I’ll be working with the organisation as they continue to evolve the visitor experience, enabling online donations, a bookings system and email newsletters.
“ Working with Charlie on our website was a rewarding experience. Over six months, he collaborated closely with our trustees to fully understand our heritage and vision. He combined creativity, technical skill, and practical ideas to transform our outdated site into a modern, user-friendly, and interactive platform. His attention to detail and collaborative approach ensured the website perfectly represents our organisation while making it easy for visitors to explore our museum, events, and community activities. We are delighted with the result and highly recommend Charlie to any organisation seeking a professional, creative, and reliable web designer.
MICHAEL COOK, TRUSTEE