Using data to change perceptions and connect more young people with life-changing opportunities

The context

Following the onboarding of the Army Cadets website, we visited their national HQ at Frimley Park to deepen our understanding of the organisation and its impact. We were blown away by the life-changing opportunities Army Cadets offer young people. From building confidence and leadership to developing practical skills that stay with them for life. Many cadets come from underprivileged backgrounds, and the experiences they gain not only transform individual lives but benefit wider society.

However, this powerful story wasn’t coming through on the website. Key audiences including young people, parents, and potential volunteers, often misunderstood who the Army Cadets are and the impact they deliver. The site wasn’t clearly communicating the organisation’s mission or the real-world value of getting involved, and its structure created barriers to recruitment.

It became clear that before any updates to the website could be made, we needed a clear picture of what was and wasn’t working. So, we carried out a UX Audit to uncover key pain points and assess the effectiveness of existing user journeys across the site. Using a mix of user surveys, usability testing, heuristic evaluation, and analytics analysis, we gathered data-driven insights to inform a prioritised roadmap for change.

The outcome of this audit provided the strategic foundation for a new website. This meant we could effectively improve usability and engagement and tell a more compelling story about the organisation’s work. Ultimately, inspiring action and helping more young people access life-changing opportunities through Army Cadets.

At the start of the project, we led a discovery session with the Army Cadets team to align their goals for the website and better understand its current challenges. The team shared insights into how the existing site was underperforming, particularly in converting users and communicating the true value of the Army Cadets experience.

It became clear that while the organisation delivers life-changing opportunities for young people, the website wasn’t reflecting its impact. It needed to evolve into something that not only supported recruitment, but also told a more compelling and accurate story of who the Army Cadets are.

Following scoping, we agreed with the Army Cadets team to focus the review on:

• Identifying ways of increasing conversion rates among the key user groups of prospective adult volunteers and cadets.
• Highlighting ways to improve the site navigation, reviewing, creating, and clearly sign posting user journeys, in order to direct users to relevant content, without needing to contact the Army Cadets’ staff with queries.
• Suggesting ways to increase user engagement and retention rates, ensuring the website inspires and supports users to explore and return.
• Gaining a better understanding of how to strategically use content. This included: making content engaging and appealing to share on social media, improving the user experience of uploading content for media officers, strategically creating and placing content throughout the website, and ensuring that content is relevant and up to date.

To gather the insights needed and to conduct a thorough UX review, we ran a series of studies to capture both quantitative and qualitative data on user behaviour. These included:

Google Analytics data review
We analysed 90 days of Google Analytics data to understand how users interact with the site, identify behavioural trends, and uncover opportunities to improve the user experience, boost engagement, and increase conversions.

User survey
We ran a survey that included questions on user demographics, specific queries submitted by the Army Cadets team, and targeted questions from Studio Republic’s UX team to uncover deeper behavioural insights.

Usability tests
Designed in collaboration with the Army Cadets team, these tests asked participants—on both mobile and desktop—to complete key tasks on the website. The aim was to observe user behaviour across specific pages and overall site navigation.

Heuristic evaluation
We assessed the Army Cadets website against ten usability heuristics defined by the Nielsen Norman Group. Each principle was rated on a scale from 0–10 to pinpoint areas where usability could be improved.

Accessibility report
Using the automated tool ‘Accessible Web Helper’, we scanned the site for accessibility issues, ensuring the platform is as inclusive and compliant as possible.

Engagement
Our research showed that users enjoy many aspects and features of the website and its content. However, engagement could be improved. This could be done by: updating content more frequently, using more multimedia to bring it to life, using more call-to-action buttons to drive conversions, and breaking down large blocks of content. Research also suggested that content needed to be targeted strategically, with a focus on key areas such as the cadet application process, information for existing cadets, and information on local detachments. Finally, research also revealed that users wanted the opportunity to contact existing cadets and ask them questions, which suggested a new area of development for the site.

Findability
Next, the existing site struggled with findability. This manifested through the site’s navigation which included confusing labelling, repetition, inconsistencies and lack of filtering and sorting options. Overall, the information architecture on the site needed restructuring in a way that was clear and gave prominence to important information for the site’s main user groups.

Usability
Our research also identified key usability issues that frustrated the overall experience on the site. Thus included: duplicated links, unclear user journeys, and overreliance on the search function due to poor signposting. While technically accessible, the structure of the site’s content was not aligned with user needs, and was harder to find and read. Users would face confusing navigation loops, unclear calls-to-action, and hidden (or hard to use) elements, particularly on mobile. To tackle this, we recommended enhancements like sticky menus, breadcrumbs, and anchor links to significantly improve navigation and task completion.

Look and Feel
Overall, users responded well to the site’s clean design, colour palette, and imagery, which reflected the Army Cadets’ brand. However, large blocks of text, unstructured FAQs, and underused negative space affected readability and engagement. There was a clear opportunity to improve layout and break up content using visual elements like photos, videos, icons, and accordions.

From the outset, our audit was shaped by the needs and goals that the Army Cadets brought to us and which we explored together in detail during scoping. Even as we dug into the data at a granular level, we stayed focused on the bigger picture: delivering impactful, actionable, and data-driven recommendations. This would ensure the redesign would truly reflect the life-changing opportunities Army Cadets offer young people, and inspire more users to get involved. Drawing on our research, we developed 18 recommendations, which fall into the following key areas:

Improving the site’s findability by:

• restructuring the information architecture and redesigning the menu to be more intuitive and aligned with users’ needs and expectations.
• adding filter and sort options to the search functionality.
• providing better signposting for key user journeys.
• adding navigational elements like breadcrumbs and anchor links.
• providing clearer pathways to the local HQ pages. 

Increasing the site’s usability by:

• elevating accessibility standards across the site to improve usability for all.
• fixing usability issues from the heuristic evaluation.
• optimising the website better for mobile.
• creating a clearer cohesiveness between the Cadet portal and the main website.
• reviewing the layout and functionality of the FAQ pages so that they would be easier to navigate.

Strategically review content to:

•   include more engaging content types and module functionality to reduce the quantity of text and increase engagement.
•   ensure that the website is frequently updated and clearly visible to users, especially the local HQ pages and home page.

Increase user engagement and drive conversions by:

• tailoring content for key user groups.
• inspiring users to communicate the impact of Army Cadets’ work.
• using features and news pages as key pages to drive conversions and promote content discovery.
• digitising the Army Cadets magazine.
• adding in higher-level pages for key audiences to provide top-line information and to drive conversions.
• conducting ongoing research to understand user behaviour and take a data-driven approach to updates.

We’re thrilled to have supported the Army Cadets on this key first step to achieving a website that would create more opportunities for young people to engage with their incredible work.

If you’re interested in learning more about your organisation’s website performance and how you can enhance user journeys, find out more about our UX Audit service here.