LondonConnects is London's
e-government agency, bringing together public
sector organisations to co-operate on e-government
developments for London. The founding partners
are the Greater London Authority and the Association
of London Government on behalf of London Boroughs;
and there is active support from the Department
for Transport, Local Government and the Regions,
the Office of the e-Envoy, the NHS, and the GLA
functional bodies.
It is therefore particularly
important that the London Connects website is
a role model for other Government organisations
to follow. Areza was chosen for this challenging
and prestigious task.
The brief
The design and navigation
of the existing London Connects website were short
of the standards that such a key organisation
should be promoting. The busy team at London Connects
needed a solution that could make their lives
a lot simpler, but at the same time could be quickly
adapted to their rapidly changing needs. Furthermore,
particular attention needed to be paid to accessibility
issues: The site design as seen below had over
60 Bobby faults on the home page, a fact that
was duly noted and commented on at their 10th
July 2002 conference.
Old design:
New design:
The
new site is easier to navigate, the text now stands
out clearly from the background. The new menu
bar is dynamically generated, which means that
the London Connects team can create or modify
their website's navigation menus, all in a matter
of seconds.
Articles
can be posted into more than one category by simply
ticking the relevant boxes. Note: If London Connects
wanted to add on an Intranet and/or Extranet,
they could use the same admin console to post
articles to the Website, Intranet, Extranet, or
any combination of these. We realise the importance
in creating the same look and feel for all three,
at the same time as giving each its own distinct
identity. We therefore offer a choice of templates
to make it easy for users to not only make their
content look good, but also maintain a level of
consistency throughout sites.
Usernames
and passwords can be easily created, amended,
or deleted by the Webmaster, to ensure that they
have complete control over who accesses their
site's admin console. Any content that users create
or modify has to be approved by the London Connects
Webmaster before it goes live. This is particularly
useful for the London Connects team as they work
closely with the London Boroughs. Each Borough
will have control over its own part of the site
that will only be accessible by them.
The London Connects
team have a steering group comprising the most
influential players in e-Government, so we have
a highly informed audience watching over the site.
Together we plan to develop this website to be
an example that others can follow, and look forward
to using the expertise we have gained with London
Connects to help other Government organisations
with their websites.
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