Editorial

THE DIGITAL MARKETPLACE CONTENDERS, 8: ORANGE BUS

‘The flip-side of digital progress is the threat of leaving large chunks of society behind,’ warns this digital agency that says it wants to become a standard bearer for digital inclusion

Posted 6 February 2017 by Gary Flood


In the latest of our Digital Marketplace Contenders company profiles, we meet Sam Manson, Client Partner at Newcastle-based digital agency Orange Bus

Welcome to the Digital Marketplace Contenders, Sam. Let’s start by you telling us about your company; what is your value proposition?

Orange Bus is a digital agency, delivering digital products and strategies to clients in the public and private sector. Our services are geared towards optimising the user experience. With this as the goal, we’ve forged a reputation for building high quality websites and apps developed and validated through user-research and direct communication with the target audience.

Sounds interesting. What is its relevance for the public sector?

Our user-centric approach to design makes the Internet easier to use. This not only serves to address the problem of the digital divide but also promotes a fully inclusive society in an era where the flip-side of digital progress is the threat of leaving large chunks of society behind.

With central and local government, as well as the NHS, all reconsidering their approach to digital development, Orange Bus actively practices and promotes the agile, iterative practices they’re looking for.

We’ve worked on a number of successful projects based in and around the public sector and are well-schooled in GDS design principles. This includes ongoing work with HMRC and the DWP, along with NHSP, ChooseCare, the Skills Funding Agency and local councils across the UK. For more information on our work, feel free to visit our site and view some of our website’s case study section.

In addition, we’re industry advocates for the kinds of user-centric design values which de-risk public projects and which really help o guarantee meaningful products.

Why are you on The Digital Marketplace now – what do you hope to achieve?

Our presence in the public sector means that the Digital Marketplace is a natural fit for us. Primarily, we’re looking to increase our pre-engagement conversations with potential clients, helping them to define the problem they’re facing and helping them to issue a brief geared towards finding the appropriate digital solution for them and their service users.

If ThinkDigitalPartners.com came back to talk to you in a year, what would you like to be able to say you’d achieved in the public sector?

We know that good design isn’t just about aesthetics and brand engagement. As a result, our designs for the public sector seek to make a real-world impact with genuine societal outcomes.

As a business with a strong social conscience, we’d love to increase our impact on essential services like Adult Social Care and the NHS. Orange Bus has already achieved a great deal in the public sector, and we’d like to be recognised as a major contributor to the UK’s digital channel shift – maybe even becoming something of a digital inclusion standard bearer.

So if you come back to speak to us in a year – and I hope you do! – we’d like to say that we enhanced the digital conversation between the public sector and the tax paying public.