For the Sussex Learning Network (SLN) to get its message across, our website has to be visually appealing, easy to navigate and capable of presenting a wide range of information in a clear, accessible way.

The talented creative team at the Lewes-based agency DOT, who say they ”love a challenge!” was chosen to design the site. Working closely with SLN staff over several months they produced exactly the kind of fresh, bright and usable site we needed.

DOT is a well-established web design agency set up in 1996 by Peter Warren and his wife Gaynor. Originally an architectural technician, Peter always had a strong interest in the design aspects of his work. After some years working in the construction industry he decided to move into a design-based career and launch his own agency.

His creative team now includes Martin Short, who has a background in film and photography and has worked with Peter almost from the beginning, and designer Chris Barrow, who joined the company five years ago.

Their work ranges from websites, branding and animation to print, exhibitions, interactive games and video production, in sectors as diverse as travel and tourism, education and training, heritage and the arts, government, professional services and e-commerce. The key to their success, says Peter, is their specialist skills in providing “clear communication, highlighting what our clients have to offer through clear, direct editorial and uncluttered art direction.“

This approach has earned DOT an impressive client list featuring major companies such as Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Grant Thornton, IBM, Shell and Easyjet, and organisations including local authorities, government departments and universities. DOT also has a growing portfolio of work in exhibition design and with heritage organisations such as the Museum of London, the Florence Nightingale Museum and the Southwark Discovery Centre.

For SLN, Peter explains, DOT needed “to design and develop a site that would reach a wide variety of audiences. It also needed to provide the SLN team with a robust platform on which to grow and develop the site.

“Our approach, as with all our clients, was from the end user’s point of view - how are they going to find their way around the site. Our design has to be strong editorially and visually so we aim for bright, fresh, sophisticated graphic and interface design and usability. We think users should enjoy browsing the site and find their way around it easily.

“We’ve built up an excellent working relationship with SLN and it’s been very interesting to be part of a project from the beginning and to see it develop.  We are currently working with SLN on the learning opportunities section of the site and it’s a great chance for us to help people access practical content that will help them further their careers.”