Computing at School (CAS) is a grassroots organisation which supports primary and secondary school computing teachers.
Facilitated and supported by the British Computer Society (BCS), CAS brings teachers together to share ideas and best practice.
Digital services play a critical role in the CAS community: providing access to a collection of teaching resources; enabling members to give and seek advice; and providing a platform for the organisation and promotion of events.
The challenge
Developed piecemeal over many years, CAS’s web presence is no longer fit for purpose. Spread over two separate sites, the fragmented structure bears little relationship to the ways in which teachers actually want to access information and services.
Our user research found widespread negative perceptions of CAS’s website, with users finding it outdated and difficult to use.
Analytics showed declining usage, despite the clear and present need for grassroots communities of computing teachers and the types of digital service BCS is attempting to enable.
Our solution
After gathering evidence from user research, we facilitated workshops with the CAS team to develop objectives and priorities; design an information architecture; and design content structures.
Thanks again, I really did enjoy the design phase, and I am sure we will be able to build on that to deliver a new and exciting online presence for CAS in the near future.
Julia Adamson, Director of Education, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
Detailed work followed to evolve the outputs from workshops into detailed wireframes, content models, and taxonomies.
We also worked with the CAS team to create a design direction giving the CAS community a strong visual identity and an initial set of user interface patterns.
User testing design ideas enabled us to validate some of the core concepts, and fine-tune specific features.
The current CAS site has no clear ‘homes’ for primary and secondary teachers. The new content design focuses on the needs of different types of teacher and personalised experiences for CAS members.
Outcomes
Armed with a clear set of objectives and a strong vision of its future digital services, the CAS team is ready to embark on a complete overhaul of its website.
