Case Study - Leith Community Pottery

Scottish Tech Army recently joined forces with Leith Community Pottery to assist with a website transformation after the project stalled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Leith Community Pottery is a social enterprise which provides access to expert pottery tuition to the community in Leith.   Places in classes and workshops are offered free of charge or for a voluntary donation to those living with mental health conditions, the marginalised, the isolated, those living with dementia, those with any physical health conditions likely to benefit from the gentle exercise involved in clay-work and other disenfranchised groups.  Leith Community Pottery receives referrals from NHS professionals and 3rd sector organisations, with whom they have strong links.

Andy Lang (a.k.a Potter of Leith) was in the process of developing his new website and online presence with a volunteer when the pandemic hit, and his volunteer could no longer assist with the development of his website.

With an incomplete website, Andy contacted Scottish Tech Army after learning about the group in some local literature.

Andy explained: "I knew exactly what I needed my website to do, but I didn't know how to make it a reality.  Scottish Tech Army allocated a team who helped me to complete my website with a booking system and an online shop."

Jane Darkes began volunteering with Scottish Tech Army in May, primarily looking at websites and helping organisations to improve them from a user experience perspective.  Jane teamed up with fellow STA volunteer Martha to work on the Leith Community Pottery project.

Jane explained: "Martha and I spent time going through Andy's website identifying which elements were good and which needed to change.  We helped him to set up low fidelity wireframes and think about the customer journey through to booking onto a course. We then helped him set up high fidelity wireframes and managed to recruit a WordPress Developer and Copywriter to create a new website that matched his needs."

Jane and Martha met with Andy every week to discuss progress and next steps which helped to gather momentum and move the project forward during the current pandemic.

Jane said: "Andy was open and ready to make changes, so this made it easy for us to help him.  I particularly enjoyed working on this project with Martha, who is a fantastic person to work with.  It was great to be able to collaborate in this way.

After working closely with Scottish Tech Army Volunteers Jane and Martha, Andy is excited to launch his website once development is complete.

Andy said: "Scottish Tech Army have been amazing. Jane and Martha met with me regularly and gave me a complete eye-opener on what was involved in developing my online presence.

They worked really hard on my project and, met with me regularly via Zoom and laid the groundwork for a much improved, new website. Thanks folks!"