Continuous innovation with the Royal College of Art

A hub of creativity and innovation

At the Royal College of Art, digital innovation has always been part of our story. Our website is more than a place to share information; it’s a living reflection of our creative community, our global reach, and our ambition to remain at the forefront of art and design education.

I joined the RCA 18 months ago as Senior Website and Content Manager within our Engagement, Brand and Marketing team. It’s a role that combines strategy, creativity, and technology, overseeing the RCA website and the digital products that power it, ensuring they align with our strategic goals and reflect our position as the world’s number one art and design university, a title we’ve proudly held for 11 consecutive years.

The RCA is a truly international hub of creativity, home to four specialist schools, more than 40 programmes, and students and staff from over 70 countries. Every day, I’m inspired by the incredible talent that surrounds me, from the next generation of artists and designers to our renowned alumni, including David Hockney OM, Dame Tracey Emin RA, Sir Frank Bowling, Sir Ridley Scott, Dame Zandra Rhodes DBE, RDI and Sir James Dyson OM. It’s a community that thrives on innovation, and our digital presence must reflect that same spirit.

Building a digital experience that’s accessible and engaging

Accessibility and user experience are at the heart of everything we do. Last year, we undertook an in-depth WCAG 2.2 audit, the gold standard in accessibility. We then worked with Torchbox’s brilliant developers to turn that audit into action, resolving all the high-priority issues and embedding accessibility as a continuous cycle of improvement.

We don’t just see accessibility as a compliance exercise. It’s about inclusivity, diversity, and doing the right thing. Each year, we mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day with workshops and resources for staff, helping everyone across the college create content that’s inclusive, clear, and usable for all.

Alongside accessibility, SEO and structured content remain a focus, especially as we navigate the evolving landscape of AI-powered search.

While AI overviews are changing how people find information, they also push us to create content that’s more purposeful, designed around the real questions users ask.

Why Wagtail works for us

Before joining the RCA, I’d worked with many CMS platforms, from Drupal and Umbraco to WordPress and Tridion, but Wagtail stands apart for its usability. It’s the most intuitive content management system I’ve used. It manages to balance a beautiful user experience for editors with robust flexibility for developers.

What I appreciate most is the attention to detail Torchbox brings to each new development. Every feature is considered not just for its technical purpose, but for how real people, our content creators, use it day-to-day.

That focus on both sides of the user experience is rare, and it’s what keeps Wagtail evolving in a way that genuinely supports its community.

Storytelling through design and technology

One of the most exciting developments in our digital strategy has been the integration of Shorthand for immersive storytelling. Working with Torchbox, we embedded Shorthand within our Wagtail environment, opening up a new way to bring RCA stories to life.

We’ve used it for everything from celebrating 40 years of animation graduates to transforming static information pages into rich visual experiences, like our digital feature on the RCA Special Collections, a treasure trove of creative history. It’s also become a powerful tool to showcase the work of our postgraduate students, highlight innovative research, including initiatives like the Terra Carta Design Lab, and support student recruitment through targeted campaigns and localised microsites in languages such as Chinese and Korean.

Each story we publish deepens engagement with our audiences, from prospective students to alumni, researchers, and partners, and reinforces the RCA’s role as a global leader in art and design innovation.

Shaping the future: personalisation and AI

Our next big leap is in personalisation. We’ve been exploring ways to make our website experiences more relevant and responsive, from subtle user nudges to tailored messaging and smarter lead generation. Up to now, we’ve used a third-party tool to implement these ideas, but our ambition is to bring personalisation in-house.

By developing our own tools within Wagtail, we’ll reduce reliance on external platforms, improve data integrity, and have full control over how we deliver and measure engagement. Ultimately, it’s about creating meaningful interactions that help users find what they need, whether they’re applying to study, exploring research, or reconnecting as alumni.

AI will also play an increasingly important part in our digital strategy. From supporting content creation (like generating alt tags and meta descriptions) to enabling adaptive, data-driven user journeys, we see AI as an opportunity to free up time for creativity, provided it’s used ethically and transparently.

The road ahead

Looking forward, our mission remains clear: to be the world’s most influential art and design community. Digital innovation is central to achieving that. Whether through personalised content journeys, interactive storytelling, or ethical AI integration, our focus is always on enhancing the experience for our audiences and ensuring our digital platforms reflect the creativity, diversity, and excellence of the RCA itself.

The partnership between the RCA, Torchbox and Wagtail is a story of shared values, creativity, openness, and a drive to make technology work for people.