National Trust scoops Plain English Campaign Web Award

The National Trust website scooped the accolade for being user friendly, accessible and highly professional. The award is given to what the Plain English Campaign judges consider to be the clearest website of the year. They look for sites that are:

- written in plain English;
- attractive but not at the expense of clarity;
- make it easy for the reader to find their way around; and
- make it easy for the reader to get the information they are looking for.

The Plain English Campaign said: “The National Trust website is a fine example of an accessible, readable and easily navigable website. It’s user friendly and attractive, with a clearly and cleverly constructed front page which contains well-spaced text and images. The use of colours and fonts is also particularly easy on the eye, and the overall effect is that of a highly professional website that offers a fitting companion to a fine organisation.”

Debbie Smith, Senior Content Manager for the National Trust’s website, said: “When our website was redesigned earlier this year, our focus was on exactly the things that this award recognises, so for us it’s a really important one. Our aim was to put the user at the heart of the website, and to achieve this we went through extensive user testing to get the navigation just right, cut the number of steps needed to find key information, and introduced a policy on plain English and cutting out jargon. Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible – our special places are for sharing, and we wanted that to translate to the website.”  

The site features information about the special places that the National Trust preserve and protect.

This marks another successful year for Europe’s largest conservation charity which also won two awards from Mumsnet. These awards were a response to research that showed that 93% of Mumsnet users thought that Britain’s businesses weren’t family friendly enough.

The Trust were successful in winning the Gold Award for their family friendliness as well as the Innovation Award for the launch of a Kids’ Council, where ten children were recruited to advise them on how to make Trust visits as enjoyable as possible for families.

Notes to Editors
The 2012 Plain English Campaign annual awards were revealed on 10 December.
There was no official ceremony this year in keeping with austere times: instead they released news of winners through newspapers, radio and on their website.

The second annual Mumsnet Family Friendly Awards were announced at an event hosted at Admiralty House by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and attended by business leaders from the retail, finance, travel and leisure sectors. 

About the National Trust:
The National Trust looks after more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, 710 miles of coastline and hundreds of historic places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For more information and ideas for great value family days out go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

Press Office Contact:
Sally Williams
The National Trust
Heelis
Kemble Drive
Swindon
SN2 2NA
0844 800 4955
www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Contact Information

Sally Williams

PR Contact

The National Trust

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