An exciting new website for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales (CCfW), combining a fresh and modern design with games, widgets and essential content.
Visit the Children's Commissioner for Wales website
Background
Keith Towler is the Children’s Commissioner for Wales. Keith’s job is to stand up and speak out for children and young people and works to make sure children and young people are kept safe and that they know about and can access their rights.
The Commissioner required a new website that would focus on the needs and expectations of the individual audiences, including children, young people, professionals and other adults. The website would also become a tool to encourage children and young people to interact with CCfW and offer their views and opinions.
Solution
Imaginet worked very closely with the Commissioner’s team, who consulted with over two hundred children and young people from across Wales, to ensure the site met expectations. Some key features of the development included:
• A fresh and welcoming design was created that would appeal to the broad target audiences for the website. Staff can update the images in a tabbed interface system on the homepage so that visitors are always given fresh content when they visit the site
• A key area is Backchat, which encourages young people to complete short questions on key issues that affect them. Staff have complete control over the questions being able to add new questions and trivia at any time
• To reach more young people and children, Backchat was converted into a Bebo widget so that whenever new questions were uploaded it would be delivered directly to a recipient’s personal web space, as opposed to expecting them to visit the site again
• A fantastic game was created with one of Imaginet’s partners, the Carbon Studio, one of the UK’s leading game developers. Again, children and young people’s input into the design was invaluable. The game teaches players all about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in a fun and interactive way and combines four game types in four distinct areas
• Visitors can upload their own content and work for display on the site creating a community feel on the site
• A bilingual content management system allows staff to maintain all content in the website including documents, news and imagery throughout
• Extensive usability testing throughout the development, including liaison with over 200 children who provided comments on the design and game, which proved invaluable
Testimonial
"We involve children and young people in all aspects of our work so we were keen to appoint an agency that would work comfortably with children and young people and listen and take on board their views and opinions. From the outset, the Imaginet staff were flexible in their approach and responded positively to the feedback we gave them from children and young people, even during the interview stage.
"I was particularly impressed with the team’s project management skills and the way in which they guided us to meet with every deadline. Their after-sale service has also been great, and proved invaluable to an IT-novice like me!
"My sincere thanks to every member of the Imaginet team who helped us create a fantastic website, on time and to budget."
Sara Young, Media & PR Officer
Children’s Commissioner for Wales
