It’s been a busy week in NRW Digital!

  • Kim and Mary have been approaching the end of their review of the News and Blogs section. The aim is to make this section easier for users to navigate, and improve folder structures in Umbraco to help our Comms colleagues to manage their content. We have deleted all blogs that are older than our standard retention schedule of two years, and created an archive of EU-funded project blogs which have to remain live for five years after a project’s end date. We used the “grouped headings” function in Umbraco to help users navigate the list of blogs, tidied up the design to ensure consistent colours in headers and footers, and updated Welsh link texts to clarify where they take users. Mary has updated the content about blogs in our publishing manual, and is developing a checklist for Comms officers to use when they are ready to publish a blog.

  • Hannah, Sophie and Kim have been undertaking many, many accessibility checks, and published consultations, board agendas and papers, and public registers. The 2026-27 business plan has also been published, and the corporate plan is being worked on.

  • Sam and Jane have been making further amendments to the forest management content to improve clarity. They also had a session with James to identify themes from the recent user research interviews. Participants were broadly happy with the new approach, describing it as logical and well thought through. They gave valuable feedback and insights that we’ll be taking into account with our next iterations of the content following discussions with subject matter experts.

Heledd’s reflections from Camp Digital

Heledd and Sam recently visited Manchester for Camp Digital. The event focused on hope, the future of emerging technologies, and the power of people who care about others and the environment using their expertise to make things better.

Rachel Coldicutt introduced the Society for Hopeful Technologists: people working in technology coming together as a force for good, and a trusted voice against misinformation, hype, and some of the nonsense around AI.

Himal’s talk on sustainable intensity or how not to burn people (or yourself) out struck a cord. He used a familiar diagram from the internet - the one with a whole stack of things balancing on “a project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003”, to highlight the people in organisations who quietly carry too much.

He spoke honestly about his own experience of being that person, the personal impact and the techniques he now uses to avoid ending up there again.

A theme running through several talks was psychological safety: having space to think, spot patterns, ask difficult questions, and say the obvious thing no one wants to hear.

Most things aren’t urgent. We often find ourselves and others rushing, reacting, firefighting, and this talk was a reminder that we all probably need to slow down at times.

They enjoyed lots of other speakers throughout the day – read in full Camp digital - reflections