How the Royal Family’s new website was designed
Reading Room has created a new website for The Queen and the Royal Family, built around an image-led approach and with new search functionality.
![Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 14.52.52](https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2016/04/08145642/Screen-Shot-2016-04-08-at-14.52.52.png)
Reading Room has designed a new website for The Queen and the Royal Family, which is the first update to the site in eight years.
The new site – which is at www.royal.uk – has been designed to be fully responsive, incorporates more imagery and video and has been built around a new search function. It replaces the previous site at www.royal.gov.uk.
It is the home for news and announcements about all members of the Royal Family and has to be easily updatable from a number of different sources.
![The previous website](https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2016/04/08145649/Screen-Shot-2016-04-08-at-14.53.46.png)
On average more than 12 million people around the world visit the Royal Family’s website.
The site has been renamed “the home of the Royal Family” and will, according to Buckingham Palace, “play an increasing role in engaging the public in the role and public work of The Queen and the Royal Family.”
Buckingham Palace says one of the key innovations in the new design is a new search facility, which will act as the “primary form of navigation”.
![Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 14.53.04](https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2016/04/08145646/Screen-Shot-2016-04-08-at-14.53.04.png)
While the new site will retain the menu function, navigation will be focused around a new search box on the main site.
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace says: “Layers of information sit within navigation blocks that flow in to create rolling infinity pages.”
The new site also uses embedded social media and video and a more image-led approach.
![Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 14.53.38](https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/standfirst-designweek-production/uploads/2016/04/08145637/Screen-Shot-2016-04-08-at-14.53.38.png)
Buckingham Palace says the site aims to be “highly visual” to move away from the previous site’s “text-led” approach.
The site aims to present content including news and information about the work of the Royal Family; “encyclopaedia-style content” on the history and traditions of the Monarchy and information about Royal residences and art collections.
Buckingham Palace says the move to a fully responsive site is “particularly important” in communicating with people in the Commonwealth, where 60% of the population is under the age of 30 and “mobile communication is predominant”.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson says: “The new royal.uk site is more flexible in terms of accessibility, visually engaging in its appeal, easier to navigate and search, and is more interactive.
“It is also much easier to update regularly with content from numerous sources including charities and members of the public who benefit from their work.”
Reading Room was appointed to the project following a tender process.
IMO the new website is nearly unusable. It has almost no organization at all. All articles that I’ve looked at are at root level. Almost no menus. No navigation at all. There is no way to systematically read the site to learn about the BRF. There isn’t even a site map. There is very little information where the old website was well organized and had a wealth of information.