Since establishing a business relationship in May 2023, Cantarus has been working alongside the British Army to deliver a programme of improvements, upgrades, and new features for their public-facing website.
The British Army’s main website (www.army.mod.uk) is central to its media operations, information provision, family support, and recruitment marketing.
Cantarus, an Umbraco Platinum Contributing Partner was tasked with the design, development, and delivery of the new site to align with the Army’s evolving digital strategy and security requirements. This involved migrating to a more recent, long-term supported version of the Umbraco CMS.
Rob Helsby, Creative Director at Cantarus comments:
“As we emerged from Discovery our Experience Design team established 3 guiding principles for the project: Modernity, Excitement & Unity. This fed into everything from core functionality to an interaction design language. It was an honour for us to take such a globally recognised brand and help drive them forward online. The website had to work for a wide range of audiences, from military historians to the families of serving soldiers and veterans. Alongside an overhauled and simplified navigation and site structure, we worked with 3D objects, created interactive tools and told immersive stories to deliver a memorable experience that we can all be proud of.”
The new website features a modern design with updated page components and micro-animations while working to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards. Key improvements include enhanced navigation and immersive content presentation to better support the Army’s objectives of providing accurate information, attracting recruits, and supporting families and personnel.
This upgrade, say the agency, “ensures that the British Army’s website remains at the forefront of digital innovation, effectively meeting the needs of its diverse audience while supporting its mission and objectives”.
Mike Cundall, Cantarus COO, comments:
“We are delighted to announce the launch of the newly redesigned British Army website, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing, multi-year, partnership. As an Umbraco Platinum Contributing Partner, we have implemented significant improvements to enhance the website’s user experience and functionality while ensuring robust security and future-readiness. We look forward to further supporting the Army in achieving their digital objectives.”
I’ll enjoy looking at it later.
I find the official sites of the 3 services and the MoD pretty poor, regards the sort of updated information that I look for, so I never recommend relying on any of them.
Much improved site. Some of the ORBAT stated in it looks incorrect though, unless some things have changed recently.
I’ll look at later, but encouraged by your initial take. In the past, I have found it frequently out of date in its info or basic info missing completely, marred by weary, grammatically-challenged in-house writing, a requirement of which appears to be to make boastful claims about every aspect of the services as frequently as possible.
Web companies, being IT techies, are generally pretty hopeless at the primary role of communication (and not much better at the techie elements either, in my experience). Bur I will view the new offering in a positive frame of mind!
It is better.
But yes, I have spotted several out of date and incorrect ( by my understanding ) details already regards the ORBAT!
But that is just picky old anorak me.
A lot of the Brigades do not yet have their own page, and most of the Corps are still missing.
The unfortunate truth is maintaining the British Army website is something that slips through the cracks as it’s something that needs doing only every few years, doesn’t sit with a defined job role (or if it does needs doing so little it doesn’t feature in HOTO’s) and is of very low priority to the running of any units.
I understand. And yes, I can see your reasoning.
MB has a communication and PR directorate.
You’d be ideal with your knowledge.😉
I wonder how much this cost? The army has plenty of tech-savvy personnel who could have revamped the website for nothing!
Doubtful actually. Web design is one of those things that any Joe Blogs can do badly. But doing it well is a skill