National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA)
Biznet IIS was awarded the National Adult Literacy (NALA) Website and CMS projects.
The Brief
biznet IIS was awarded the National Adult Literacy (NALA) Website and CMS projects with a brief to:
- Design and re-structure the existing NALA website (www.nala.ie) with a special emphasis on making it easier for website users to navigate. The new website navigation should focus on the needs of the site’s users.
- Bring together all the NALA websites into one consolidated ‘literacy portal’ now known as www.literacy.ie
- Redesign the aesthetics of the whole NALA web presence.
- Develop an integrated staff intranet.
- Synchronise all existing NALA databases – Outlook contacts, Access database and web database.
It was also a requirement that the CMS would be easily updateable by all internal Staff and would be integrated with existing contact management systems and product databases already existing within NALA.
The Solution
NALA required a complete web solution including Accessible Web Design, Multi-lingual CMS, Courses and Students Database, Ecommerce and Intranet system. biznet IIS delivered the solution on time and within budget using our in-house CMS.
On this project we dedicated much of our efforts to the first stage of the Design Process. The Planning, Hierarchy, Navigation, Usability, Functionality, HCI and Storyboarding were paramount to the project’s success. Working extremely close with the NALA Project Team, biznet IIS moved the project smoothly through the Design Lifecycle, high-level Project Specifications and Branding Guidelines within agreed timescales and deadlines.
The user friendly nature of the website layout encourages users to easily navigate, search and book and pay for courses and publications online.
As well as NALA.ie, the Literacy.ie web portal has been designed to bring together all the websites that NALA have developed. It is also designed to provide people with tailored information relevant to their learning needs. It groups together all NALA's existing sites and provides the most comprehensive information on current literacy issues in Ireland.
This site also groups information according to the end user. It has split key information into four categories:
- Students
- Practitioners
- Employers
- Those with a general interest in literacy
biznet IIS stepped up to the challenge and delivered a professional and interactive solution to support the literacy needs of Ireland. Literacy.ie is an evolving site and will continue to grow and develop over time. Phase 2 is currently in progress.
This project was developed with the end user in mind, yet still maintains a pleasing front end interface. However, accessibility was not sacrificed and the solution was successfully delivered to Level AA based on WAI Accessibility Guidelines.
The Results
The NALA website has already increased its level content by 20% since going live illustrating how a much more user friendly system enables content creators to work more efficiently. Visitor levels are also up considerably. The NALA website also stocks over 20,000 publications which users can purchase and download in PDF format, directly from the Website
Online Courses will shortly be set live on the website, NALA hope to run all its course registrations via the website within the next 6 months.
NALA’s aim for its website is to become the benchmark for accessible websites in Ireland. Plans are also already in place to begin implementing e-learning courses via the website by the end of the year.
View the Website