ESB

Introduction

ESB (Electricity Supply Board) is a state-owned electricity utility. It operates across the electricity market, servicing Irish and UK customers from electricity generation to supply.

In 2008, we started our first project with ESB, managing a suite of HTML websites. Since then, our partnership has flourished, supporting the organisation in its transformation and acceleration of its digital commitment.

Digital Partner

ESB operates across the generation, transmission, and supply markets, so our work focused on specific customer verticals and how digital can support and improve the customer experience. We work closely with business teams to plan and develop the information architecture, UX design, and content requirements in partnership with ESB IT services and external consultancy partners. Once we have a consensus, we create the frontend requirements, adhering to accessibility compliance, and then integrate and develop the content management aspects for each product.

We augment ESB’s teams by providing expertise across key areas, including platform selection and technical architecture, specialist Sitefinity skills, wireframing, information architecture, user testing, web design and design system development and management. This partnership ensures the platform remains scalable, robust, and aligned with their evolving business needs. Our support enables ESB to deliver seamless digital experiences while maintaining the highest standards of performance, accessibility, usability, and innovation.

Global Platform

Sitefinity has been the primary CMS/DXP since 2014 and underpins the ESB Group, including Electric Ireland, the residential and commercial supply business, as well as ESB Networks, which manage the transmission and distribution of electricity. Electric Ireland's new website was launched in 2024, first released and designed by Arekibo in 2015.

Design System

Since 2022, we have led the development of the ESB Group Design System, frontend, and Sitefinity library to support the delivery of new digital initiatives. This is a library of components, designed and developed with ESB's brand identity at its heart, which can be reused across all ESB's properties. This ensures a coherent, standardised look and feel for the various enterprises under the ESB umbrella, creating a uniform aesthetic and breeding familiarity in its use.

We also support each of ESB's businesses by providing consultancy and assistance with content development, web analytics, search engine strategy and optimisation, and cookie compliance. We also ensure that knowledge transfer occurs with the integration of the new component library and design system, so that coherent structures and implementations are adhered to.

Accessibility First

Chief among ESB's concerns was to take an approach that prioritised accessibility. Through our design and development workshops, we ensured that accessibility was always the first consideration, and all components designed and built into the library were considered from the start, meeting accessibility requirements.

This also ensured that the components in the library had already undergone accessibility and usability testing, so that when reused by other properties, the time required for testing was drastically reduced and adhered to ESB's standards.