AQA website re-design in 2012

Brief

• Re-develop the AQA website, including: a new Information Architecture (IA) and visual design; new CMS and taxonomy; and new in-house production and management regarding content authoring and web page production processes
• The old AQA site had a confusing IA. Teachers needed to use the website to access the syllabus to plan the year’s tuition, but were unsure whether they had the correct version. AQA received many requests from teachers for information which was available on the website but difficult to find
• Subject specifications were in PDF format. Searching for them was difficult because their content was not indexed
• The visual design was outdated
• A move to a new CMS required a new editorial process, content strategy and taxonomy

Result

The overall outcome was a much more intuitive flow through the site for the different target audiences. Teachers could now be more confident that they were looking at the correct syllabus or subject specification when planning their teaching. AQA staff received fewer questions from teachers wanting information which they could access on the website.

The new layout and visual design provided space to use modern technologies to display information. It also portrayed the AQA brand in a contemporary way.

• Created new site-wide Information Architecture
• Confirmed recommendation to produce the syllabus as HTML rather than PDF
• Identified page layouts for the site flows for key audiences
• Collaborated with the graphic design team to maintain content priority determined through user research

Tasks

• Identify the main audience: who is the primary audience: teachers, parents or students?
• Enable teachers (the main target audience) to navigate to the correct subject specification (syllabus) for lesson planning
• Enable parents and students to easily access information relevant to them.
• Determine the web-based display for the syllabus – for diverse subjects, for example, French, Mathematics, Physical Education and English.
• In-page information architecture
• Site-wide Information Architecture

Methods

• Requirements gathering – speaking to subject matter experts and the project group at AQA, and reviewing user research from interviews with the main audience groups
• Content analysis – comparing different subject specifications to identify common components and produce a common web-based layout for all subject specifications
• Prototype development – incorporating new concepts into a prototype and script to use to identify ideal IA, user flow and layout. Concept usability testing.
• Usability testing analysis – observing testing sessions, mentoring co-facilitator on best practice to find out what we needed to know; reviewing footage to identify users’ language, concepts and mental models and incorporating into revised wireframes