Ppl + Plc website
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client Maia Ardalla
completed 2025
Timeline 4 weeks
Informed by public practice
When Maia approached me to design and build this resource as part of her talk at V&A Upstart Festival of Creativity, the following requirements were discussed. These were informed by her experience and insights with young people who were seeking advice and resources for creative practice.
- Accessibility: Ensure the directory was usable by the widest possible audience, aligned with public programming values
- Effortless maintenance: a critical need for a living document that would be frequently updated with minimal technical overhead
- Mobile optimisation: recognising that mobile-first approaches reflect the reality of creative practice
- Contemporary visuals: Clean, engaging aesthetics
Given the tight timeline, my role as the sole designer and builder, and the limited budget, I strategically chose Cargo as the development platform. My prior extensive experience with Cargo meant I could rapidly build the site while maximising the financial and maintenance budget, allowing me to focus more deeply on fulfilling the specific design and accessibility requirements.
Strategic target setting towards best possible international accessibility standards
I targeted for WCAG level AA during the planning and design stage, although adjustments had to be made once development started.
During development, I also utilised assistive technologies to preview the website to ensure it worked appropriately. Colour schemes and fonts were continually tested during brand development for maximum contrast. The final colour palette meets level AAA for visual contrast, which represents the highest level of success for visual contrast.
Solutions leveraging available technology, driven by UX thinking
The most maintenance-heavy part of the site is the directory of names and links. As the site is a living document, this was predicted to be regularly updated, and even hopefully crowd-sourced in the future.
It was unrealistic and unnecessary to connect this to complex SQL or database management softwares. Instead, I planned a simple, straightforward solution to streamline this with AI.
- The table on the website is styled with CSS stylesheets that are consistent throughout the site, so each category of the directory is styled the same way.
- The data is stored in an excel sheet on the client's computer, which is regularly updated by herself and collaborators.
- When it comes time to update, we simply download the data as XML files and utilise Gemini AI to convert the XML into HTML tables with active links.
- The directory is by simply replacing the existing tables holding the directories on each category page.
Simple, lightweight, and less than 5 minutes to complete across the entire site!
Mobile-first approach, validated by continuous testing
The website is designed with responsive layouts; in Cargo, I am able to switch regularly between mobile and desktop previews to ensure that changes I am making are consistent and responsive.
The focus of vertical flow for mobile optimisation is also ideal for accessibility, both for desktop and mobile users. On mobile, the menu is placed as a button on the lower right corner with padding in consideration of user thumb placements. As an android user, I asked friends with iPhones to preview the site to ensure that it was usable across different devices.
REFLECTION
Solid foundations for future expansion and continuous revision
- Due to back-end problems with Cargo, there are still violations present on the site that stop it from being AA compliant. I plan on consulting other experts for ways to streamline and improve this in the future along with future updates.
- However, as the foundation for accessibility is solid, these issues are not issues that affect usability of the site, ensuring that the site is still a high quality, accessible resource for all in its current and future iterations