Louise Macdonald explains how Young Scot built its new website based on the ways young people behave online

Young Scot has just launched of our completely new Young Scot digital information platform. Not just a makeover – a whole new online us!

Quietly, over the past year, we have been working in all kinds of ways to better understand how young people want to find information and how they want to use Young Scot online.

Using our data and insights on the information young people search for, and looking at what Young Scot content and services they use, we have worked hard to design this new digital service for them. Extensive co-design and user testing sessions with groups of young people across the country have further developed our understanding of the kind of online services young people want from Young Scot.

We know young people are viewing loads of content online via smartphones or tablets, and our new platform is the next step in Young Scot’s ambition to give a better social and mobile focused service.

And it’s way more than just a website! The new platform brings together all of Young Scot’s information, opportunities and services under one roof, and to ensure that young people get the best information possible, the platform also has content brought by its trusted partners such as Get The Lowdown, Choices for Life and My World of Work.

Using our data and insights on the information young people search for, and looking at what Young Scot content and services they use, we have worked hard to design this new digital service for them

Louise Macdonald

Designed mobile first, the site fits with the devices that young people use on a daily basis, and has content from much-loved social platforms, including Instagram and YouTube. And, by setting their location, young people will get content that is near to them, including things to do, news, and discounts on their doorstep, all brought by Young Scot’s local authority partners.

Together with our digital partners Storm ID, we adopted a co-design and user-led approach to the development, ensuring that the platform is designed for the needs of young people in Scotland. It reflects how they want to engage with Young Scot information as they grow up. It’s all about user-demand – and we have built the new system to allow us to adapt as the platform grows and is used, based on what young people are telling us.

We are really excited to release the new platform and to hear what people think. Please do take the time to explore and see what is there, and add it to your favourites. This is just phase one of what is an ongoing digital development so watch this space for future updates and new information partnerships, including improvement to the Young Scot app.

If you or young people you work with would like to help us produce content for the platform, or have any ideas about how we could improve it and make it better, then please tell us! You can tweet us @youngscot – using the hashtag #YSInfoLab – or contact Kirsten Urquhart, information services manager directly on [email protected].

Louise Macdonald is chief executive of Young Scot. Take a look at the new site at youngscot.org.