Civic works with Union Consortium to develop new SQA website
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has launched a new website, developed by Civic, with the aim of encouraging users to interact with the education authority.
The new website includes over 10,000 pages and over 30,000 documents and was developed over a four month period from scratch to provide information to as wide an audience as possible, meaning that the development of an effective search tool was fundamental during the project.
To ensure of this, a new Information Architecture was developed by The Union Consortium which worked with behavioural research consultancy Bunnyfoot, and implemented by Civic in the design and build.
Union Consoritum's work on the project, having been appointed following a tender through the Scottish Government's digital supplier framework, a number of key tasks such as content review, user testing, card sorting analysis and meta data review.
Following this, Union Consortium has also delivered a further key stage of the re-development process; a Wireframing development.
Wireframes, which were based on the information architecture, were then produced by Union Consortium and supplied to Civic to implement.
Meanwhile, to engage the wide target audience ranging from pupils, to teachers, tutors, employers and those with an interest in returning to education, three mode of interaction have been included to suit each type of user; role based, exploratory and direct.
Content has been grouped for learners, teachers, coordinators, appointees and businesses who can search by using the ‘I am a…’ function, which aims to make the site more relevant to its varied audience.
Students are also able to build their own exam time tables, download past exam papers and set up news alters from the SQA.
Greig Tosh, managing director of Civic, explained: “The SQA was one of Civic’s first clients and it is great to still have them as a valued client. It is an honour to be part of such a creative project. Young people are very open to new ideas so this site allows us to push the boundaries of creativity, interaction and navigation. It is an essential resource for students and teachers alike and I believe the new website will greatly improve the user’s experience.”
Union Consortium has also won two further projects through the Scottish Government framework for SQA that were incorporated into the website re-development: NQ Content Restructure and Study Guides content development.