Get into Newcastle

Elevating city experiences with around-the-clock information 

NE1 is a Business Improvement District company, a business-led initiative that aims to champion and improve Newcastle’s city centre. NE1’s Get Into Newcastle is Newcastle’s go-to guide for all things city-centre. Covering venues, offers, events, things to do and Newcastle’s renowned Restaurant Week, Get Into Newcastle is full of information and inspiration for any trip to the city.

JUMP has collaborated with NE1 for several years, so we were delighted to work with them again on the design and development of their new website for Get Into Newcastle. The main aim of the site was to showcase everything the city has to offer and allow users to easily navigate the content-rich site and its abundant information.

Enhancing user experience through seamless flexibility

The challenge of this project was to enhance the rich content and showcase the city’s offers while providing a fresh and reader-friendly experience. 

Advancing content flexibility was of high importance for this website, so JUMP introduced a fluid hero panel that could support 3 columns of content, 2 columns, a full-width option and also an option to support video. Putting content first, resulted in a flexible site with clear navigation and improved flow.

JUMP implemented a rapid and user-centric site search feature, facilitating swift navigation for users. Additionally, persistent sticky navigation was incorporated to further enhance the user flow.

Data caching was also added to significantly increase the speed and keep performance of this traffic-heavy website at its highest. Fast search experience and instant list filters were also integrated to quickly navigate the site.

Maintaining brand consistency across communication channels

The Get Into Newcastle magazine is very popular and available throughout the city. We suggested to our client that the logo used on the new site should be consistent with their printed offering, so we utilised this and aligned it with the NE1 logo at the top of the menu, introducing a sans serif font to compliment this update. 

To further enhance user experience, JUMP incorporated harmonised colour schemes for the various sections such as venues, offers, events, things to do, and Restaurant Week. This not only elevated the design aesthetics but also aided users in locating the information they desire.

Given the image-intensive nature of the design, JUMP strategically employed diverse panel types across the homepage and throughout the website. This approach aimed to captivate users, effectively showcase Get Into Newcastle's diverse offerings, and celebrate the essence of the city.

Sparking inspiration and harbouring engagement 

As part of NE1’s bespoke website, JUMP crafted an ‘Inspire Me’ page, designed to ignite user enthusiasm by presenting tailored activities aligned with specific categories of interest such as hair and beauty, music, arts and culture, shopping and more. This curated selection of activities corresponds to a time frame chosen by the user, encouraging engagement and exploration of what Newcastle city centre has to offer.

Advanced web development for a coherent user interface

JUMP’s developers generated the website to operate on a cutting-edge serverless deployment platform. This innovative platform not only ensures seamless auto-scaling capabilities but also adeptly manages diverse and fluctuating workloads - guaranteeing zero downtime for users.

Moreover, adopting this serverless solution extends its advantages beyond performance enhancements. It brings about a simplified approach to infrastructure monitoring and maintenance, alleviating the complexities that typically arise in traditional setups.

Beyond the technological upgrades, JUMP has also introduced a new preview feature to enhance the content management process. This empowering feature allows content editors to preview articles before they are officially published, ensuring content accuracy and presentation quality.