NIBSC: Secure, Accessible and Reliable Digital Systems
Improving usability, accessibility, and security across a complex legacy CMS to support critical scientific and regulatory operations.
The Challenge
The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) plays a vital global role in ensuring the quality of biological medicines and vaccines. Its digital infrastructure supports complex scientific, regulatory, and public health functions, but the existing website presented several critical challenges.
Operating on a legacy CMS with limited flexibility, the platform required urgent improvements to address security vulnerabilities, accessibility concerns, and usability issues while maintaining operational continuity across a highly complex environment.
Security vulnerabilities identified through penetration testing required immediate remediation
Accessibility issues were impacting compliance and user experience
Complex stakeholder and third-party dependencies slowed delivery and change
What We Delivered
The purpose of this project is to complete an strategic short term fix on the NIBSC website to ensure continued longevity prior to a larger website redesign project in the future.
In particular, this project focused on addressing a number of security and accessibility issues highlighted through relevant pen tests and accessibility third party reports. The project also looked to substantially improve the current user experience and usability of the site whilst addressing the security and accessibility issues all in one go. Following completion of the high priority pen test security fixes, the team then got to work on some low fidelity wireframes for both the improved user journey for the online accounts and for the product search/categorisation piece. Only once these had been approved were we able to complete the build phase and integrations with the existing APIs managed by a third party.
Due to the extremely tight turnaround, the project required a lot of moving parts all being managed at once. Due to this we decided on an agile project management approach, with the project being broken down into four separate sprints. Relevant team members from both GC and the client side were allocated to each sprint, with separate discovery sessions held for each work package. All took place in tandem working towards the same delivery date.
This project took 3 months overall to complete.
Result
Early feedback from the client was overwhelmingly positive. The project was delivered largely on time and exceeded expectations given the extremely tight deadline for turnaround.
In the future, the client hopes to complete a full site UX and design revamp including a transfer onto a modern and more suitable CMS.
Lucy Murnane
I just want to thank you all and congratulate you for the success of the NIBSC Website Upgrade. Whether you were from NIBSC or GWC you worked as one team and pulled together to get these important changes done on time. I would also like to especially thank our supplier, the human tech agency, Nick and Kayley and their team working hard behind the scenes. Nothing was ever too much trouble, when we needed to pivot and change the goalposts at the last minute, this was done with a professional approach. There were no complaints, Nick, Kayley and team just rolled up their sleeves and got on with it. The GWC team went the extra mile for this project and for that we are very grateful. It also felt great to work with a team that is so self-reliant and motivated. Without the support that you all have provided, NIBSC might not have achieved the milestones. Despite everyone having incredibly busy schedules, every one of you and those in your teams, just made the project look easy. Thank you all for the amazing dedication and effort! It’s been a brilliant experience working with you all and I wish you the very best on your next challenge ahead. I am sure you will ace it!
Why This Matters for Providers
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