The new site has been developed to better serve the needs of our website users, to take account of new technology and to increase the accessibility of the site. We have worked to improve the navigation and to provide a clearer, more consistent layout which highlights information of relevance to improvement in Scottish local government and its partners.
The site redesign has been influenced by user feedback over the past two years, by feedback from Improvement Service staff and by views expressed in a user survey conducted through January/February 2009.
We have responded to this feedback by:
- Developing a flexible ‘Hot topics' list to reflect key areas of current importance
- Reviewing and improving site navigation through the use of focus groups and ensuring consistency throughout the site
- Reviewing page layout and structure, introducing a clear and consistent layout throughout the site and adding page sections which provide access to key documents, external links and communities of practice.
- Restructuring the categories within the document library so that documents are easier to find
- Adding document publication dates and improving our review processes to ensure content remains relevant and current
- Employing RSS and bookmarking to particular areas of the site where this may be of benefit to users
- Ensuring that the new site can implement user polls and collect and present any results
Reviewing search function and future development requirements, with the aim of ensuring search results are relevant, current and clearly labelled
- Introducing new ways to make the site more accessible along with an on-going development plan to continually monitor and improve the accessibility of content and features provided.
The site also contains updated information and details on all of the Improvement Service's core programmes, information about governance and details of team members.
Actions for you?
- This is not a one off exercise - websites need to be refreshed regularly so please provide feedback on the site using the Site feedback button.
- Even more importantly if you have news, events, case studies, reports which you would like to share with others, please register on our website and then go to the submit sections. Or if you have distribution lists for key news, events etc. - add listen@improvementservice.org.uk to your distribution list so that we can publicise your items
- Also register on the site to receive our monthly e-Newsletters (previously registered users have been transferred across to the new site so no need to register again)
- If you work in an organisation for which the work of the Improvement Service is relevant, ask your Intranet Managers to make sure that there is a link to www.improvementservice.org.uk from an appropriate part of the intranet.
For further information please contact Martin MacKinnon, Web Development Manager at the Improvement Service at martin.mackinnon@improvementservice.org.uk or on 01506 775580
