A Local Heritage Hub only works if the people it's built for can actually use it. Iterative research and testing ensured Historic England's new platform was effective for a genuinely diverse range of users, not just the easiest ones to design for.
Who: Historic England – the public body championing England’s historic environment
What: Iterative user research and testing for a new digital platform: the Local Heritage Hub
How: Six rounds of user research and testing, including usability testing, mini focus groups, and co-creation workshops
Result: A user-informed, engaging digital service built on a foundation of real user insight
Background
For the past two years, Historic England has been developing the Local Heritage Hub (LHH), a new digital service designed to celebrate and share the rich history of counties, cities, and towns across England. With the goal of engaging a wide range of audiences – from heritage enthusiasts to those traditionally less engaged in their local history – the LHH aims to make local heritage more accessible, meaningful, and enjoyable.
From the outset, Historic England committed to a user-centred approach. They regularly sought user feedback to refine the concept and content of the Hub, ensuring the final product would genuinely reflect the needs, interests, and behaviours of its users.
Web Usability has been a core partner in this journey since December 2022, supporting the LHH’s development through multiple research and testing phases, culminating in the final round of user testing before launch.
What We Did
Over the course of the project, Web Usability led six rounds of research to shape the Local Heritage Hub’s development:
Discovery research: In December 2022, we carried out an initial discovery phase with 28 participants to understand how users responded to the LHH concept and what types of content would most engage them. These insights formed the foundation for the project roadmap.
Prototype testing: Using these findings, Historic England created the first LHH prototypes. We then conducted two iterative usability testing rounds (with 20 users each), where participants explored the Hub both as locals and as visitors to new locations. Our UX consultants facilitated these sessions, capturing real-time behaviours and feedback.
Focus groups: When testing highlighted areas of complexity and low engagement, we ran three mini-focus groups (with 9 participants in total) to gather fresh ideas on how data could be used and presented more intuitively.
Beta testing and refinement: Concepts from the focus groups were incorporated into a Beta version, tested with 10 individuals from Historic England’s core audiences. This phase also included user feedback on the journey into the Hub, which had been shaped during a Google Sprint-style workshop with Historic England stakeholders.
Final testing: A final round of Beta testing validated previous insights and surfaced final refinements ahead of launch.
Throughout, we worked in close collaboration with Historic England – co-creating research plans, shaping design decisions, and sharing insights in real-time.
Outcomes
Our research helped Historic England deliver a service grounded in user experience. The Local Heritage Hub now reflects the real interests and behaviours of its intended audiences – including those without an overt interest in history or heritage.
User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive throughout the research, with users showing genuine enjoyment when discovering stories about their local areas, highlighting the platform’s potential to deepen community connections and broaden engagement with the historic environment.
The project stands as a strong example of how iterative, collaborative research can help shape engaging digital services.
“All your help and support during this project has been invaluable and definitely contributed significantly to us being able create such a successful product!”
Digital Product Manager, Historic England
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