Launching the UK RAS STEPS network and website platform
Launched in 2024, UK RAS STEPS is a community driven research technology platform to support Research Technicians working in robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) across the UK.
It aims to cultivate a collaborative and inclusive research environment that empowers RAS Research Technicians to advance and develop their careers.
THE BRIEF:
The UK RAS Network was launched in order to aid collaboration and connect Robotics technicians across the UK 37 universities and research centres.
They came to us and wanted help from the ground up: to create the logo and branding, to help with events material and also to build a new website.
The brief stated: to create a culture where technical careers are recognised, respected, supported, developed and aspired to as professional careers in higher education and research institutes.’
The branding project will lead to a richly resourced STEPS website which will act as a hub for the robotics Research Technicians community.
The goal was to launch the website in the summer of 2024.
The network aims to cultivate a collaborative and inclusive research environment that empowers RAS Research Technicians to advance and develop their careers.
"THE PROJECT:
Six directions were shortlisted as having the most potential, and the best designs for each route were presented. Each had a different personality - ranging from the more understated corporate and hi-tech to the more diverse and accessible, illustrative and figurative. The STEPS projects and programme being all about inclusion, recognition outreach and proactivity.
Following a couple of rounds of shortlisting and refinement, the chosen design is inspired by a robotic arm reaching out. This route instantly placed the project in the sector and the multicolored armature of interconnected forms also reflects the joining up of the community and multiple elements of the STEPS initiative.
In order to keep the momentum going and to keep within the project time scales, the website was fully scoped in terms of functionality whilst the branding and design was worked on.
Once the branding and designs were completed, this was then applied to the new website and the client started to add the content.
THE RESULT:
After a very tight turnaround for the website build, the new website was launched in August 2024.
Since launch the site has been well received within the community and the network is continuing to grow both offline and online. We are very excited to share the STEPS journey and continue to support this exciting area.
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