Surface Impression creates beautiful design, and optimises usability and content for the needs of your audiences. From large-scale sites to concise microsites the design, development, and ongoing management of digital platforms is a central focus of our work.

Interactive installations provide an opportunity for deeper engagement with exhibitions and information. Some of our popular interactives include interactive maps and timelines, 3D images or environment displays (including VR/AR, 3D objects and spaces), user generated content (open exhibition submissions, citizen science, etc), and digital flip books which simulate whole books and publications online.

We work extensively with collections, archives, and library catalogues of all sizes – integrating with collections, archives, and asset management systems, to building distinct collections for smaller datasets within a content management system. Our approach includes editorial, design, and media-based interpretation to bring out the stories from within the collection to create better audience engagement, whether that be online or in person at a venue.

We offer a number of training/course options to help participants develop digital skills while undertaking a specific digital project to solve a challenge at their organization. The one on one approach has been a great success to ensure participants receive the support and advice they need to succeed. Look out for future programmes or contact us for more information on potential opportunities.

We have helped a number of organisations develop new strategies and tactics after going through major changes and/or struggles (especially since the pandemic). Organisations often really need this, but are unable to find a pathway without outside help. Often, just having someone to show them what they already know makes all the difference! We contribute ways and means to inform decisions, implement changes and adapt to changing times.

Our newest type of consultancy, we offer expert advice, training and strategy development that develops your understanding of your visitors, how to market to them, how to design for them, and how to respond to their understanding of you. Visitor engagement is always a challenge, and our strategies can walk you through the process with any number of staff, from one to hundreds, in order to ensure your institution is connecting with your audiences and that your brand carries through at every level.

Our most frequent type of consultancy work is helping institutions make sense of policy/strategy development around digital. Often, a digital or digitisation strategy is a requirement for grant funders, so we can help craft one that is both realistic and can grow and evolve with your organization as technology and staff change.

We believe in putting the user first. For a single website, that user can be many different types and include both visitors to a site as well as the staff who manage the site. Digital design has to work for both and ensure a great user journey for all, no matter why they have followed a URL. Centering the user in every step of a project ensures we always remember who we are designing for.

Our key to design has always been to focus on equity (everyone has what they need to access online content in the way that best works for them). We believe this is a better approach than equality (treating everyone the same) as it understands that design can be customized to meet the needs of multiple types of users, especially with the benefits of modern technology innovations and accessibility developments.

WCAG 2.2 (and now 3.0) is the foundation of accessibility design for online spaces. Also it is a great check list and is the key to reach AA or AAA accessibility for websites, it is important to understand it is only the beginning of accessible web design, and we always use this as part of our larger accessible design strategy.

One of the ways we ensure our high accessibility practices are meeting the needs of actual users is the work we do with disability arts organisations. We can test regularly with real users who have a wide range of requirements and needs, and try out new technologies, software, new design ideas, as well as ensure our main work remains accessible as assistive technology changes (e.g. screen reader updates).

Are there things you need to know about your work that you can’t easily answer? Do you need to convince a stakeholder to make a beneficial decision? Are you looking for ways to better understand your impact and operations? All of these questions, and more, can be answered with data analysis. Work with us to discover the most appropriate techniques and tools, to create visualizations and reports, and to help you tell the data stories that will support effective decisions (for yourself, your colleagues or your stakeholders).

What’s better than us working with your data? It’s you working with your data! By building the skills to work with all types of information, structured or unstructured, qualitative or quantitative, you’ll gain the means to independently derive insights, inform decisions and communicate with data. Through one off sessions or long-term programmes, we help nonprofit sector professionals become confident with this essential 21st Century skill.

Some data you have already and some data you can reasonably secure from someone else – but often the only way to get what you need is to go out and fetch it. We can help! From facilitating focus groups to discovering external sources, we can reduce your workload and collaboratively work with you to improve results. Data almost always needs some form of cleaning or structuring, an activity that can be very labourious – let us take the strain so you can use your own time more constructively.

Sometimes data problems seem very difficult to solve. Perhaps crucial information is stuck in old software even though you now use a whole new system. Maybe you have cabinets full of hand-written forms but no time to transcribe them. For these examples and more, we can be a great help – we provide expertise, tools, innovation and enthusiasm to transform tricky situations from problems into opportunities.

Outside of day to day support maintenance we help our clients to continuously improve and update their digital. You may want to include a new shop or resource section to an existing website or we can provide help to translate a physical exhibition into a digital space with a virtual gallery. New developments help organisations build on their existing media.

Our inhouse support team manages all support requests through our ticketing system or ‘support hub’. This system allows us to provide prompt response times after a ticket is logged for initial investigation and then triage work for resolution through our support development team.

Organisational demands and digital progression mean that all digital media requires strategic reviews over time.  This could be improving how a website’s content is organised, including updates to navigation to enhance its usability, or help with analysing your Google Analytics to identify and propose improvements. Working with some clients for over 15 years we work on interactions of strategy to keep their digital products relevant.

We want everyone to feel confident when working with their products so we provide training as part of our project development process. However, over time users can change and media is updated, so we can provide tailored training sessions for new content editors or refresher training to existing teams to help ensure longevity of the media.