Background
The previous OSPAR website had an extremely dated design, and was difficult to navigate and use. The poor usability was a particularly significant problem given that the site was home to a library of several thousand documents which needed to be readily available to visitors. Since redeveloping the site NB Communication has continued to work with OSPAR to implement various improvements and new sections.
Challenge
OSPAR required a modern, mobile-friendly website capable of handling a large amount of content, presented in a straightforward and intuitive way. It soon became clear that the database library would need to be completely re-worked, to improve OSPAR's ability to manage the documents, and make them easier to access for front-end users.
Solution
NB delivered a brand new, fully-responsive site featuring clean design and clear navigation systems to help users access the large volume of information in an extremely accessible way.
In addition to the core content for each ‘work area’, the site also features a significant archive of meetings, publications, news and downloadable documents. In total, over 20,000 documents are stored and shared via the website, and this number has continued to grow since the site’s launch in 2015. Our team’s database skills contributed towards the success of this site which was extremely well received by the client and users.
Since the launch of the OSPAR website in early 2015, we’ve regularly worked alongside the client and introduced improvements including:
- Integration of OSPAR’s ‘MAP Matrix’ into an attractive and searchable page allowing visitors to filter content and print or export their selection.
- Design of an offshoot section of the website called the ‘Intermediate Assessment’, displaying key information and statistics in an attractive way.
- Development of a new "Ministerial" section for use at OSPAR's meetings. This included options for some pages to be available only to logged in users.
- Improving template designs to provide visually appealing display options for sections of the site, including use of eye-catching banner images.
- Enhancing search functionality – the site is large and acts as a gateway to a vast amount of data. NB worked to make the search function as useful as possible, incorporating buttons that direct to other areas of the site and external databases.