A Digital Transformation
Highlands and Islands Enterprise
- Website
- UX / UI
- API Integrations
- Digital transformation
- Multi-site
- Digital Scotland Service Standard
As the economic development agency for one of Scotland’s most vast and diverse regions, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) plays a pivotal role in helping people live, work, study and invest across the Highlands and Islands.
We’ve been their technology partner since 2016, helping shape their digital transformation and delivering user-first services audited against the Digital Scotland Service Standard.
Together, we’ve created a digital estate of 11 websites that empower users, enable self-service, and meet the needs of modern public service delivery.
11 sites.
1 CMS.
Our Umbraco multi-site solution powers 11 scalable and flexible websites with shared components, and a unified design system.
The Challenge
HIE needed to modernise their digital platforms to align with the Scottish Government’s Digital First, Customer First approach to service delivery.
That meant rethinking everything, from user journeys and content, to CMS tools and meet the Digital Scotland Service Standard, a high bar that is audited rigorously by the Scottish Government’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).
One of our goals was to create a solution that would support a single CMS instance powering multiple sites across their estate, and based on a consistent design system.
That meant moving beyond a static information site to create experiences closer to a virtual account manager — personal, responsive and intuitive.
Evidence-based. Iterative.
We started with deep research: analysing existing data, leading stakeholder workshops, and conducting user interviews to define key user profiles and needs.
From there, we designed a user-centred experience focused on simplicity, accessibility and personalisation.
Key innovations include a Support Finder tool to help users self-identify and discover tailored support; a flexible tagging system that improves content discoverability through search, filters and user profiles; and the MyHIE account-based portal, allowing users to manage preferences, save content and receive personalised recommendations.
The result is a service-led platform that doesn’t just broadcast information — it responds to each user’s specific needs.
Personalisation.
To support a personalised service for users, we created MyHIE; an account-based, personalised way to access HIE’s content and services.
A flexible, component-based architecture
The multi-site solution is built on Umbraco CMS, giving the HIE team full control of their digital estate. Using a shared library of design system components, they can quickly create and adapt a wide range of page layouts and configurations without needing new development each time.
Greener.
As part of our continuous improvement programme, we recently launched the next iteration of HIE’s platform to consolidate its design system and apply low-carbon design principles to reduce emissions across the full estate of sites.
“Bright Signals led a robust and in-depth user research process that gave us key insights into our users' needs and motivations. As a result, we've been able to develop a user-centred website that will help our clients quickly and easily find support services and resources that are relevant to them.
The wire-framing and design process has also led to a user friendly, flexible website which allows us to create new content, pages and site sections easily using their flexible framework within Umbraco and content block approach.
As a partner, they are collaborative and supportive and care about creating a solution that's right for both us and our users.”
Anna Allan, Head of Marketing, Highlands and Islands Enterprise