Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture, dedicated to ensuring people across the country can access and benefit from creative experiences.
All In is their UK-wide access scheme for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people. The platform allows audience members to store their access requirements in one place, so they never have to repeat themselves when booking arts events. Organisations and venues use it to list their access provisions, find resources, and explore training and support to help them improve.
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The challenge
All In was an entirely new concept, which meant there was no existing blueprint to follow. Before any design or development could begin, HDK had to work closely with Arts Council England, their digital membership system provider, and accessibility standards partners to translate a vision into a workable digital product.
The platform needed to serve two very different types of user: audience members managing their own access needs, and organisations managing their venues, listings, and access provisions. User journeys for both needed to be carefully mapped and tested. At the same time, the site needed to meet the highest accessibility standards, and support multiple languages, all while feeling like an Arts Council product rather than a government website.
The solution
We approached the project in phases, running technical discovery workshops and an extensive wireframing process before each one. Working within brand guidelines created by Four Communications, we designed and built each phase iteratively, with user testing at key points to refine journeys and functionality.
Throughout the project, we partnered with Accessible by Design, who provided design feedback and conducted accessibility audits to ensure the platform consistently met high standards. Integrations with a digital membership system, a translation plugin, and a British Sign Language translation tool have been built and delivered across the phases.
To date, four phases have launched, with two further phases in progress for this year.
How we did it
Full design and build of the All In public-facing platform
Technical discovery workshops and wireframing for each project phase
Design system developed from Four Communications’ brand guidelines
Integration with a digital membership system via API
WPML translation plugin integration for multilingual content
Signapse BSL translation integration
Partnership with Accessible by Design for accessibility feedback and audits
User testing at key points throughout the build
The results
Four phases of the platform have launched to date, covering information pages with translation support, standards pages, user account setup, organisation and location setup, listing pages, and billing and subscription functionality.
The project is ongoing, with two further phases currently in development.
Nuts & bolts
Digital membership integration
A custom API integration connects the platform with the All In digital membership system, allowing data to flow securely between the two without being stored on the website itself.
WPML translation
Full integration with WPML supports multilingual content across the platform, making All In accessible to a wider range of users.
Signapse BSL translation
Integration with Signapse provides British Sign Language translation, extending the platform’s accessibility for D/deaf users.
Subscription tiers
The platform supports both free and paid subscription tiers, with different levels of access to content and features for organisations.
Accessible by Design partnership
An ongoing partnership with Accessible by Design provides independent accessibility audits and design feedback across every phase of the project.
The team have really taken the time to properly understand our needs, not only for specific elements of the website, but also the background to the project. Not only has HDK delivered a site that meets accessibility standards, but they have taken us on the design journey with them, so we've been able to fully understand the approach taken and the research and reasoning behind different solutions.
Phil Lofthouse, Technical Lead, Access Scheme Development, Arts Council England
