Lloyd’s Register Foundation is the custodian of a vast, unique heritage collection that is related not only to the history of Lloyd’s Register but also to subjects like maritime innovation, trade routes, politics, word forms and diction. The Lloyd’s Register Heritage and Education Centre (HEC) oversee this collection, and manage enquiries and research questions that come in to them. Keepthinking was selected to design and develop a website to showcase this historic collection, as well as to implement the collection management system (our very own Qi) to manage this historic collection. The website brings together the branding of Lloyd’s Register Group with the user pathway of an online collection.
The homepage serves as the front page, advertising the content within the site and guiding the user through the variety of information available. The user can choose whether to search straight away, or go directly to either the ships or documents pages. Communication activities (social media, events and blogs) are a key part of the Heritage and Education Centre’s (HEC) work, and these are highlighted on the front page.
When a user comes through the collection, they are able to begin by searching in everything. However, from this page, there are several opportunities for users to refine where they would like to be looking or what they would like to search in. One of the challenges with Lloyd’s Register was the sheer range and depth of information available for the researcher or browser. The navigation of this website seeks to make the paths simpler for the user, rather than showing them too much content at any one time.
The bulk of the collection is divided into records of individual ships or the documents that contain the information about the ships. Therefore, this section of the online catalogue allows the user to choose which route they would like to go down. HEC staff can choose highlighted records to show, as well as provide a bit more information about the collection. A selection of the types of ship or document are available for the user to read more about, as well as start a search off using these types as a filter.
The extensive library is also a key part of the HEC’s collection. The landing page here showcases highlighted books from the collection, as well as a list of the popular search terms. These search terms are pulled together based on what users search in the library. This provides another entry point for users to explore the collection.
Single ship and document records provide an image (if available) for the record, as well as key information about it. Users are able to see the images on a grid and a lightbox, and download a PDF of the full images together. This is particularly helpful for those instances where a document is multiple pages long. Then there are two tabs, one which displays the relationships with other parts of the collection. On a single ship record, this would show all the documents that relate to this ship. The other tab also gives much more detailed information about either the ship or the document. On a single ship record it lists all the documents that provide a given detail about the ship.
HEC has many other types of content available for the browser and researcher. These range from downloadable content, to signposts, to frequently asked questions or to simple body text. The aim was to create something that makes it clear to the visitor what is available, but also allows HEC to have greater control over how they show their content.
The staff at HEC guide researchers, show visitors around the building, catalogue the collection and enquiries, and are the custodians of the extensive archive. Putting a face to a name is important to them, and so this section was made In addition, the most recent blog that each staff member has written is shown next to the individual on the module, to provide another entry point for a user’s browsing.
The HEC team have multiple instances where listings would need to be displayed: blogs, events, news items and newsletters. These all include filters, categorisation and tagging, as well as a sort.