British Army
From Legacy to Leading Edge – A Digital Transformation for a Modern Battlefield
Background
The British Army’s corporate website is a critical digital hub supporting recruitment, media operations, and public engagement. However, the previous website had become outdated, both in design and functionality, creating obstacles for its diverse user base. Navigation issues, inefficient search functionality, and static content presentation hindered engagement and usability. The Army needed a future-proof, user-centric platform that reflected its strength, unity, and mission while delivering a seamless digital experience.
“We are delighted with the new Army website and have enjoyed every part of the process, from discovery through to delivery and beyond. Our website visitors were our top priority throughout the planning and design of this new mobile-optimised site, and they were at the heart of every decision made. It’s great to see post go-live user testing data already showing increased task successes and faster task completion times.”
Jess Jones, Head of Digital and Content at British Army
Solution
As an Umbraco Platinum Contributing Partner, Cantarus worked closely with the Army to design and develop a cutting-edge website on the latest version of Umbraco. This solution provided enhanced scalability, security, and performance while maintaining the Army’s infrastructure on Microsoft Azure.
Umbraco’s flexibility and intuitive content management features were instrumental in empowering Army content teams to manage updates efficiently without relying heavily on development resources.
The editorial workflow has been streamlined, enabling internal teams to publish updates faster and more securely, while maintaining full control over permissions and approvals.
Key design principles included:
Modernity: A sleek layout with clean typography and intuitive navigation for an improved user experience.
Excitement: Interactive features such as motion-enabled CTAs and an interactive map to engage younger audiences.
Unity: Built to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards, the site ensures a consistent and accessible experience for all users, including those with assistive technologies.
Implementation highlights:
- Overhauled site navigation for improved usability.
- Interactive storytelling and engagement tools.
- Custom-built solutions for dynamic content presentation.
- Robust infrastructure integration within the Army’s secure Azure environment.
Impact
The new website has driven a significant transformation in the Army’s digital presence. Through extensive user testing and a data-driven approach, the following improvements were achieved:
Task Success Rate: Up by 14%, demonstrating improved user efficiency.
Time on Task: Reduced by an average of 46 seconds, reflecting a streamlined user journey.
Recruitment Impact: Task completion for finding fitness standards for recruits improved by 20%, and finding the rank structure improved by 67.5%.
Job Site Traffic: A strategic CTA placement doubled daily clicks to the Army Jobs site from 2,000 to 4,000.
Beyond the website launch, the Army remains committed to continuous improvement. Enhanced tracking, analytics training, and ongoing refinements ensure the platform continues to evolve, providing an adaptive and future-proof solution.
Cantarus continues to support the British Army with optimisation sprints, performance reviews, and feature roadmapping to ensure the site evolves with changing user needs. One such roadmap item was the launch of the Soldier magazine in a digital format for the first time in its 80-year history, also facilitated by the Umbraco CMS.
The Results
%
increase in clicks to the Army Jobs site
%
increase in average user task success
s
decrease in average user time on task
