Routes into Languages

Routes into languages is a UK government funded project to increase the takeup of language learning among schoolchildren via providing increased support for language teachers and educators.

Working closely with the designer, I was responsible for selecting the CMS platform and implementing the technology for the basis of this site. I led a critical analysis of the client and end-user needs, and on this basis, evaluated a number of possible content management solutions. Important factors for this site were:

• The editing process needed to be very easy to use for the content editors, many of whom would not have web experience.
• The project included many partners often in other locations and organisations, and the system would need to support their remote login and access control.
• The site would need identical sections for each of the regional partners, with appropriate access control.
• The site would be a central database of events, resources etc. but registrations and content production would occur on the local level.

As a result of this analysis, the Drupal open source CMS platform was chosen for it's flexibility and ease of use for the project partners, many of whom would not have web experience.

The implementation included a custom drupal theme and extensive custom modules to support the remote registration features. All markup was designed with semantic web standards in mind.

A later update to this site via user testing and feedback brought improved navigation and graphical interest. At this point, I also implemented a jQuery image carousel into the home page.