Sector(s)
Team Members
Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service needs to communicate with residents, businesses, visitors, schools and potential recruits across a varied region. Its website plays an important role in sharing prevention advice, explaining services and publishing information about incidents.
Following an open tender, Big Blue Door delivered discovery, information architecture, visual design and a Drupal 9 build. The project began in November 2020, with a beta launch on 30 June 2021 before the new website replaced the previous platform.
The work combined user research and tested prototypes with specialist integrations, including control-room incident data, Ordnance Survey mapping, Apache Solr search and recruitment information. Big Blue Door continues to provide AWS hosting, support, security maintenance and development, extending the relationship beyond the original launch.
Business case and background
The Service wanted a modern, flexible open-source CMS and a digital experience that made its work more transparent. The existing information architecture could bury content seven or eight navigation levels deep, making it harder for people to find the advice or service they needed.
Discovery also identified an opportunity to improve contact journeys. The Service wanted people to find useful information before making an enquiry and to reach the appropriate team when contact was necessary. Reducing avoidable enquiries was a business objective, alongside improving the quality of information provided by people getting in touch.
The website also needed to reflect the importance of prevention. Its purpose extended beyond reporting fires: it had to help people understand risks, find practical guidance and access support such as home safety visits. Recruitment was another important audience need, requiring clear information about careers and available opportunities.
Big Blue Door brought these requirements together through a new content structure and an approachable interface. Incident information and maps would make the Service’s activity easier to understand, while a maintainable Drupal platform would give the digital team a foundation for ongoing publishing and improvement.
About the project
Discovery grounded in user needs
Big Blue Door began with a detailed discovery process, reviewing website analytics alongside information from the contact centre and control room. Remote stakeholder interviews and workshops involved around 15 individuals, exploring frustrations with the existing site, audience needs and priorities for the new service.
The team developed seven personas, building on the Service’s existing work. These included people seeking home safety information, business owners, potential recruits and members of the public. Journey mapping examined practical tasks such as finding safety advice and choosing the right contact route.
Research led to a clearer emphasis on prevention and an interface intended to feel supportive and approachable. Working with the Service’s digital team, Big Blue Door reorganised the information architecture, reduced unnecessary depth and improved signposting between related content.
Prototyping and iterative delivery
Big Blue Door developed three initial creative concepts and interactive prototypes. More than 60 screens were prototyped and tested, including navigation, incident presentation and layouts across desktop, tablet and mobile. Workshops and remote testing through Userbrain helped the team refine the experience before build.
Following revisions and approval of the creative direction, development progressed through fortnightly agile sprints. Backend and frontend developers worked alongside design and testing specialists, with the client involved throughout delivery.
The beta went live on 30 June 2021. Running the new site alongside the previous platform allowed further feedback to be gathered before the transition to the main domain. The “In your area” feature followed the initial beta release, illustrating how the service continued to develop after its first launch.
Connected information and clearer journeys
The delivered platform combined several complementary capabilities:
- Safety and contact journeys: clearer routes to practical guidance, a triage-style contact process and a home safety visit request journey.
- Incident information: an API connection to the Service’s control-room systems supported automated publication of incident data, with maps and headline statistics designed to make activity understandable to the public.
- Local discovery: “In your area” enabled users to find relevant incidents and information for their location.
- Search and publishing: Apache Solr search and a newsroom brought together news, events, stories and incident information.
- Recruitment and governance: Talent Link integration supported vacancy publishing, while ModernGov integration connected users with Fire Authority meeting information.
Public incident information is selective: the live website explains that it cannot publish details of every incident attended. The case study therefore describes a public information service rather than a complete operational incident register.
Ongoing support and outcome
Big Blue Door continues to support and maintain the website and its AWS hosting. The documented hosting approach uses autoscaling and load balancing across AWS’s London infrastructure, with UK backup arrangements and automated Jenkins deployments. Maintenance covers the application and infrastructure, including Drupal core and module security updates.
The result is a website organised around the tasks people need to complete: finding safety information, understanding local activity, making an appropriate enquiry and exploring a career with the Service. Content previously buried in deep navigation is supported by a revised structure, clearer signposting and search.
The project also connected public-facing content with specialist back-office information. Automated incident publication and recruitment integration reduced reliance on separately maintaining the same information within the website, while mapping gave users a more intuitive way to explore the Service’s activity.
The partnership has continued through maintenance, upgrades and feature improvements. Rather than ending at launch, Big Blue Door’s work supports the website as an evolving public service, with Drupal providing the foundation for that ongoing development.
Why Drupal was chosen
Drupal suited the combination of structured public information, editorial publishing and integration required by the project. The Service needed a flexible open-source CMS that could support safety guidance, recruitment content, news and incident information within a coherent website.
Big Blue Door used Drupal 9 for the original build. Its content-management capabilities supported the revised information architecture, allowing the team to organise content around user needs and reduce repetition. A custom visual implementation translated the research and prototypes into a responsive website spanning desktop, tablet and mobile.
Integration was a central requirement. The solution brought incident data from the Service’s back-office systems into the public website through an API, supported map-based presentation using Ordnance Survey data, and connected recruitment opportunities through Talent Link. Apache Solr provided the search solution. ModernGov integration extended the digital experience to Fire Authority meeting information.
These requirements called for a platform that could bring together authored content and information maintained elsewhere. Drupal provided that foundation, with room to extend the service after launch. The later “In your area” feature is one example of that continued development.
The open-source approach also supported a maintainable service over time. Big Blue Door’s ongoing work includes Drupal core and module updates, application support and infrastructure maintenance, allowing the platform to evolve as needs and software versions change.
Technical Specifications
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