Engaging users directly in design and development has always been a key part of the way Legal Choices works. Based on recent experience, we expect up to 10 million people to visit the Legal Choices website over the next five years. So, our focus this year has been on making sure that visitors get the most value possible when they come to the website. We have carried out repeated cycles of user research and user-focused design – talking to scores of users, gathering feedback and modifying user journeys in response to what we have learned. The results of that work will soon be available.

Of course, we have also continued to promote and refine our content offering over the past 12 months. We have engaged frontline legal advisers to identify content gaps and evaluate published content via our reference group, run through a mobile phone app. And, we have significantly exceeded our reach targets. Our website was visited more than 1.3 million times in the past 12 months, with visitors on average spending more time on the site than in previous years. Meanwhile, our videos – on topics ranging from mental health in the workplace to exotic pets – were watched 1.7 million times on Facebook, YouTube and Google, exceeding our target by 70%.

In short, Legal Choices is reaching more people and engaging them with the content it offers. This includes interactive content, like our tool for renters facing eviction, which now features tailored versions for England and Wales, and our records search, which we have extended to include data from the Legal Ombudsman and the Bar Standards Board. There is always more to do, but we are pleased to be helping people to make good choices at a time when they really need that help.