Sector(s)
Team Members
The original Autism Education Trust project ran from March to September 2021. Big Blue Door combined discovery, brand development and iterative design with a Drupal 9 build, creating a website that helped education professionals find training and resources while giving training partners tools to manage their own activity.
The work continued after launch through hosting, support and further development. Subsequent delivery included changes to delegate feedback and dashboards, learning-platform integration, and Welsh-language training administration and certificates.
A further major milestone came in December 2025: Big Blue Door implemented the new Neuroinclusive Education Network identity and switched the website from autismeducationtrust.org.uk to nen.org.uk. The result is an evolving digital service supporting both the organisation’s public offer and the practical work of its partner network.
Business case and background
In 2021, the Autism Education Trust needed a digital presence that better reflected its professional development offer and the people using it. The shift from face-to-face to virtual training during the pandemic increased the importance of clear online journeys. Earlier stakeholder feedback also identified the need for a more effective experience.
The previous website constrained content and promotion, and AET did not own its intellectual property. The new solution needed to offer greater flexibility, clearer navigation and a stronger presentation of AET and partner materials. The brief also included a WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility target.
This was a service for several audiences: education professionals looking for support, partners delivering training, and the central team overseeing the programme. The project needed to connect those needs rather than treat the website as a brochure alone.
In 2025, the organisation’s identity evolved again. NEN’s announcement described a broader neuroinclusive education mission as part of the National Autistic Society, retaining autism expertise while recognising wider neurodivergent profiles. The website needed to communicate that change and move to the new domain while continuing to support the established service.
About the project
tarting with users and the organisation’s purpose
Big Blue Door began working with AET in March 2021. Discovery and iterative design occupied five months of the seven-month programme, followed by a two-month technical build. The team defined nine core personas and tested assumptions against them throughout delivery.
Group workshops and stakeholder interviews used Miro to explore and prioritise needs. Wireframes and a clickable Figma prototype gave stakeholders and users something concrete to test. Multiple rounds of design refinement helped the new brand and website reflect inclusion, diversity, trust and professionalism. The original case study records that young autistic people contributed to the AET brand development.
Connecting public journeys with partner services
The September 2021 launch introduced a revised information architecture, clearer signposting and less repetitive content. Solr search and local-authority or postcode lookup helped visitors find relevant information and training.
The service also gave training partner administrators the ability to manage their own adverts. Delegate feedback and automatic certificates were provided without requiring each delegate to create an individual account. Dashboards helped the central team and training partners analyse course performance over time. Paid resources, donations and contact-management integration extended the site’s role beyond information publishing.
Development used fortnightly agile sprints and regular show-and-tell sessions. Big Blue Door and AET jointly tested the wireframes, prototype and build. Training and user guides supported the client team, while Big Blue Door presented the new solution to more than 670 delegates through Microsoft Live and delivered three question-and-answer sessions to support its introduction to the sector.
Developing the service after launch
The partnership continued through AWS hosting, support, security updates and further development. In 2024, work on a revised delegate feedback form and dashboard included staged testing and a planned transition between existing and new reporting.
Welsh-language delivery introduced training administration and dashboard functionality, with subsequent translation refinements and certificate updates.
Delivering the NEN rebrand and domain change
The 2025 transition involved a substantial website re-skin and operational preparation for the new domain. Big Blue Door coordinated design, development and deployment work, including theme updates, certificate branding, SSL preparation and redirects from the AET domain.
The rebranded site went live in December 2025. The outcome is a maintained Drupal service that has supported both day-to-day training operations and a significant organisational transition. Visitors now encounter the NEN identity at nen.org.uk, while the platform continues to provide routes to local training, resources and the partner network.
Why Drupal was chosen
Drupal provided a flexible foundation for a website with both public information and operational services. The original requirement went beyond publishing pages: the platform needed to help visitors discover training, support a network of partner administrators, distribute resources, take payments and report on training activity.
An open-source platform addressed the need for greater control after the constraints of the previous website. Drupal’s content and user model supported different responsibilities within the same service. Training partners could manage their own adverts, while the central team retained the tools needed to oversee content and activity. Training and user guides accompanied the build so the organisation could work with the system itself.
The wider Drupal ecosystem also suited the integration requirements. Apache Solr supported search, Drupal Commerce provided the basis for paid resources and donations, and the site connected with external services for postcode lookup and contact management. These capabilities allowed Big Blue Door to combine public content with more specialised functions without building an entirely separate application for each need.
The subsequent work demonstrates the value of that adaptable foundation. The website has supported additional reporting and Welsh-language requirements, an operational learning-platform connection, and a substantial visual rebrand and domain change. The original Drupal 9 implementation has also received continued platform maintenance, with later records documenting Drupal 10. The service has developed over time around the organisation’s changing needs.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Apache Solr supported the original requirement for more accurate search, helping visitors locate relevant material within a substantial training and resource offer.
Drupal Commerce with PayPal provided the original ecommerce solution for paid resources and donations. Commerce made transactions part of the wider website experience rather than an unrelated destination.
mySociety’s MapIt API supported the local-authority and postcode training search. Connecting a visitor’s location with the relevant area helped them find an appropriate training provider.
AgileCRM integration supported contact and newsletter-subscriber management in the original delivery. Later learning-platform work connected website users and product access with Stream/LXP; that later integration should be understood separately from the 2021 launch scope.
A custom Drupal theme and project-specific functionality supported the organisation’s identity and partner services. The current website serves its theme from Big Blue Door’s bbd_classy directory. The 2025 rebrand updated the visual presentation, while associated work included English and Welsh certificate branding. No specialist Drupal distribution is identified in the reviewed project evidence.
