A new fast and intuitive website for more effective communication with Ofgem's key audiences.
Context
Ofgem play a critical role in collaborating with government, industry, and consumers to ensure competitive energy pricing and promote innovation. Ofgem's website had become an increasingly important channel for disseminating information to a wide range of audiences, from consumers to professionals working in the gas and electricity industries. As their online presence grew, they needed to upgrade their outdated content management system.
Challenge
Our first task was to complete an audit of the existing website. That audit revealed 60,000 assets, extensive taxonomies and content types, and numerous user roles and permissions, as well as significant bespoke development by Ofgem’s previous agency. Our challenge was to understand which functionality was still required, what it did, and how it could be improved and simplified.
Approach
In accordance with the Government Digital Service Standard, we developed an alpha product – a preliminary prototype – that was made available to real users as quickly as possible. This allowed us to obtain insights from user testing to inform subsequent phases. Firstly, we tackled one of the website’s most complex features: the publications library. We migrated 16,000 publications, including consultations and investigations, while maintaining the existing metadata and relationships between parent and child documents. We then developed a new set of filter-based search interfaces to interrogate the library in a simple but powerful way.
Behind the scenes, we began developing a follow-up public beta site, incorporating additional functionality and a completely new look and feel. Our brief was to create a design system that was clean, functional, and honoured the brand, while maintaining an appropriate emphasis on content. We achieved this by creating flexible grid-based layouts, a clear separation of user interface and information, and thoughtful use of accent colours.
The public beta site was continually updated with new features, such as Welsh language support, content notifications and the data portal that integrates with Highcharts to provide a library of interactive charts and graphs. This process meant the switch-over to the website was relatively straightforward.
Evolving the experience
Five years after the original launch, it was time for the site to evolve. Ofgem’s brand had moved on, and the website needed to reflect that. Working closely with the team at Ofgem, we delivered a visual refresh that went live in late summer 2025.
The refresh introduced a darker colour palette aligned with Ofgem’s updated brand identity, along with a simplified navigation structure. This wasn’t a wholesale redesign. It was a considered set of improvements, making things cleaner and easier to use while bringing the site closer to GOV.UK design standards.
Under the hood, we upgraded the front-end stack and moved to Vue 3 for listings, noticeably improving page speed. We also introduced a long-form content type that allows Ofgem to publish reports natively on the web rather than relying on PDF downloads.
Results
Results
72%
The number of user sessions has increased by 72%
84%
The number of new users has increased by 84%
Built to keep getting better
The ongoing relationship with Ofgem reflects a shared commitment to continuous improvement, making the site faster, more sustainable and better aligned with the needs of the people who rely on it every day.