SEC Newgate UK
Rethinking, from the ground up, content strategy and design implementation to best serve the target audiences of SEC Newgate UK.
The Challenge
A strong brand without a clear digital strategy
SEC Newgate UK is the UK division of SEC Newgate, one of the world's largest strategic communications and advocacy groups. Their client roster includes household names like Royal Mail, DHL, and EDF Energy, and their reach spans over 40 markets globally.
SEC Newgate UK had a solid visual identity and a well-established design system. However, their pre-existing website lacked a clear strategy for who it was designed to serve. Content had accumulated organically over time, pages lacked clear purpose, and the navigation didn't reflect how prospective clients, journalists, or potential hires actually think about the firm's offering.
What was needed wasn't a cosmetic refresh. It was a strategic rethink of the entire website, from audience definition and content structure through to a modernised component system that could be handed to a development team and built with confidence.
Our Approach
Our framework for success
Design Audit
We began with a comprehensive audit of the entire existing website.
The audit digged deeply into target personas, content strategy, visual design and technical implementation. We identified gaps between the brand's high quality standards and the actual user experience delivered.
The output was a detailed, prioritised assessment that gave SEC Newgate UK a clear picture of where the website stood and what needed to change, forming the foundation for every decision that followed.
- Digital Strategy Analysis
- Design System Review
- Technical Implementation Assessment
Product Workshop
With the audit findings in hand, we facilitated a product workshop to align the team around who the website actually needed to serve and what it needed to achieve.
We defined the primary audience segments, and mapped the journeys each audience would take through the site. This gave us a strategic framework that every subsequent design and content decision could be measured against.
- Stakeholder Alignment
- Audience Definition
- Strategic Framework
Information Architecture
The existing site had accumulated content without a clear organising principle. Some pages were redundant, others buried valuable content in the wrong place, and key topics had no dedicated home at all.
We restructured the entire content hierarchy from scratch. Redundant and outdated pages were removed, existing content was reorganised into logical groupings aligned with the defined audience journeys, and new content areas were introduced where gaps existed, particularly around sector expertise and thought leadership, which are critical for a firm of SEC Newgate UK's stature.
The result was an IA that gave every piece of content a clear purpose and a logical place, directly aligned with the strategic goals established in the workshop.
- Content Audit & Rationalisation
- Navigation Restructuring
- Sitemap & IA
Wireframing & Prototyping
Rather than wireframing every page, we focused on the key components that would define the future direction of the site.
These wireframes served as a communication tool as much as a design artefact, giving stakeholders a tangible view of how the new structure and content strategy would translate into actual pages. This allowed us to validate the approach and gather feedback before investing in high-fidelity design.
- Key Page Wireframes
- Content Layout Validation
- Stakeholder Review
User Interface Design
SEC Newgate UK already had a strong brand and an established design system. Our job wasn't to start over; it was to update and extend what existed into a modern, component-based UI that could scale.
We refined the existing visual language, tightened spacing and typographic rules, and designed a comprehensive set of new UI components built on top of the established brand foundations. Every component was designed responsively across breakpoints and documented with clear specifications, ready to be handed directly to a development team.
- Design System Extension
- Responsive Component Design
- Development-Ready Specifications
Delivery Management
Development was handled by SEC Newgate UK's preferred third-party partner. Our role was to ensure the handoff was seamless and that the development team had everything they needed to deliver quality work without blockers.
We provided structured design documentation, component specifications, and asset packages, and remained available throughout the build to answer questions, review implementation, and resolve any ambiguities. The goal was simple: protect the quality of the design work through to production.
- Design-to-Development Handoff
- Implementation Support
- Quality Assurance
Our Impact
A strategically grounded website built to serve the right audiences
SEC Newgate UK now has a website with a clear strategic foundation. Every page exists for a reason, every content area serves a defined audience, and the navigation reflects how people actually engage with the firm's offering.
The extended design system and development-ready component library gave the third-party development team a clear, unambiguous blueprint to build from, eliminating guesswork and protecting design quality.
FAQs
Questions about SEC Newgate UK
SEC Newgate UK already had a strong brand and design system in place. A design audit allowed us to objectively assess where the existing website was working and where it was falling short, giving us an evidence-based starting point rather than making assumptions. This meant we could preserve what was working and focus effort where it would have the most impact.
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