Dundee United Community Trust

I worked with Dundee United Community Trust in 2021 while I was studying at university. My work covered web design and digital content, giving me experience of creating ideas for a real organisation rather than only working from university briefs.

One of the things I noticed before I had even started working with the Trust was how difficult its online presence could be to navigate. At the time, information about the charity was accessed through the Dundee United Football Club website rather than through the clearer standalone presence it has today.

I experienced that problem myself when applying. I found it difficult to locate the information I needed and had outside help during the application process. That experience stayed with me once I joined and influenced how I thought about the website work.

The work shown here did not all reach the same stage. The website landing-page concept and call-to-action video were shown internally, while the social media designs were concepts I created to explore how the Trust could use different platforms. Those social media concepts were not presented or published.

From my own experience, one of the biggest issues was simply finding the Trust online and getting to the information I needed. The charity did not have the same standalone website presence it has today, and its information sat within the wider Dundee United website.

That made me think about how the Trust could have a clearer entry point of its own. The landing-page concept was my exploration of how its identity, community work and important information could be brought together in a way that was easier to find and navigate.

This was not based on a formal usability study or website analytics. It came from my own experience of trying to find and apply to the Trust, followed by what I learned while working there.

What I Wanted to Improve

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  Give the Trust a clearer identity: Make it immediately obvious that the visitor was looking at Dundee United Community Trust rather than the football club itself.
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  Make information easier to find: Create a clearer starting point for people looking for the Trust's programmes, community work and opportunities.
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  Simplify navigation: Reduce the amount of searching someone needed to do before reaching relevant Trust information.
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  Support the wider digital presence: Explore how the website, social content and video could feel more connected.

I worked on a website landing-page concept for the Trust and developed the idea far enough for it to be shown internally. This was not a finished public website launch, so I present it here as design and prototype work rather than as a live client website.

The work gave me experience of designing around content that belonged to a real organisation and thinking about how that information could be structured for people visiting the site.

I also created social media concepts to explore how the Trust's content could be adapted for different platforms. These were my own design ideas and were not shown internally or published by Dundee United Community Trust.

I have kept them in the case study because they show the wider direction I was considering at the time, but I do not present them as commissioned or approved campaign material.

Alongside the website work, I created a short call-to-action video concept. The idea was shown internally as another example of how video could form part of the Trust's digital content.

It was a concept rather than a finished public campaign, and it is currently hosted as an unlisted YouTube video. I have included it here because it gives a better picture of the range of work I was exploring during the role.

Status: Concept video shown internally. It was not a finished public campaign asset.

I think it is important to separate the work that was discussed internally from ideas I developed independently. Not every piece of work shown in a portfolio needs to have been publicly launched, but the stage it reached should be clear.

The main outcome for me was gaining experience of producing digital work for a real organisation while I was still at university. The website and video ideas reached internal presentation stage, while the social media work remained my own exploration.

I do not present this project as a full website launch or a published social campaign. Its value in my portfolio is that it shows early professional experience across web design, content creation and video in an actual workplace setting.