Capita commissioned Clicked Creative to develop the front-end strategy and design for a major new governmental website project – The National Strategies Online. National Strategies are professional development programmes for early years, primary and secondary school teachers, practitioners and managers funded by the government and the new website will support those involved with education to aid the improvement and the quality of learning and teaching to raise standards of attainment for children and young people. The client wanted the site will to act as an environment for teachers to communicate and share knowledge with colleagues by joining the online groups and discussions.
To engineer one site to house huge amounts of data in a logical and user-friendly manner, the strategic approach and site architecture were the key project considerations. Unfortunately, the online architecture of the existing site had evolved quickly in a short timeframe, leading to a disparate online presence. There were a series of sub-sites and information hubs ‘bolted’ on to the existing site framework, making usability difficult for the wide range of users accessing the site on a daily basis.
During the planning stage of the project, we focussed on developing the information architecture for improved findability, user interface design, the overall user experience (based on user testing results), production of detailed wireframes and digital prototypes to demonstrate to stakeholders how the navigation would work. To ensure that these changes would be successful, focus groups were undertaken, concentrating on usability testing and findability studies.
Once a series of wireframes were approved, we produced 3 different sets of designs and these were then user tested for effectiveness. Once the chosen design was ready, we worked closely with Capita’s in-house IT resource, assisting with CSS template integration into the CMS. We also ensured that the application of the designs was carried out correctly and efficiently.
We created a technical implementation guide to ensure that when new back-end modules were plugged in it didn’t affect the template structure or look and feel and advised on the necessary amends to the CSS where flexibility was needed within the CSS templates. We are still working closely with Capita, assisting their development team in integration and testing as well as ongoing ‘roll-outs’ of further properties and satellite sites.
