Contents:

• The difference between online & offline shops
• What makes a good website: design, layout & content
• How to develop a website specification in plain English
• Ways to keep your online customers satisfied
• How to build customer loyalty
• How to make your brand work on the webmore about this session here

Resources:

• Presentation
• Useful Links / Bookmarks
• Website Specification Template
• Writing a Website Brief

Our Life, a campaigning not-for-profit organization, is looking for expressions of interest from web developers for the development of their website.

The website development brief document is available for download

The deadline for responses should be submitted no later than 5pm on Thursday 22 October 2009. Submissions should preferably be emailed in PDF format.

Key requirements from the brief

• To create a visually attractive and easy to use website which doubles as an online campaigning tool to nurture active supporters, drive debate, but also inform and promote Our Life’s views and policies on key issues;
• To implement a browser-based content management system (CMS) that will enable Our Life staff to administer content on the site without requiring extensive knowledge of HTML, CSS or other web technologies;
• The CMS must allow targeted / segmented outbound email to enable Our Life to regularly communicate with its members and other key stakeholders;
• Implementation of a membership database and online payments system so that registered visitors to the site can gain access to content via a ‘members only’ area;
• Enable Our Life staff to administer the membership database via a browser-based interface and allow member organisations to edit contact details and communication preferences;
• Site should have a text size adjuster function and follow accessibility guidelines;
• Search engine optimisation work, both in the CMS and as part of staff training;
• Training and assistance on how keywords work and how to edit photos so they look good online;
• Assistance where appropriate in developing a content plan for the website.

It should be noted that Our Life does not envisage that the site will be a ‘dumping ground’ for all the information it provides. Only key information will be provided through the website, but that information must be presented clearly and play to the strengths of online and offline campaigns.

Further information

For an informal discussion about this work and to find out more about Our Life’s plans for their website, please contact Andy Walker, Head of Corporate Affairs, Our Life, by phone on 0161 237 2031 or by email at andy.walker@ourlife.org.uk

One Central Place enables VCS groups in Manchester to promote their work and make contact with other groups to network and share information. It also provides an opportunity for groups to be contacted and consulted on specific areas of interest.

It’s such a simple thing, yet it’s already helping local groups find out who else is working for social good in their neighbourhood.

The site encourages communication and networking in a range of ways. From facilities to browse the directory by location, or area of interest to interactive maps and dynamic visual cues so you can see similar organisations by the colouring of their icon on the site.

Once you’ve found the groups you’re interested in, it’s a snip to e-mail or call them, get directions to their office on a map or even export a PDF file, or a CSV spreadsheet for mail merging a letter to them all.

More than just a directory, the site also encourages partnership working by providing clear contact details for every organisation, along with a specifically developed calls for partnership section. Anyone interested in working with VCS groups in Manchester can create a call for partnership. Running a survey? Got a tender out? What to help build capacity in the sector? Need to partner up to secure funding or magnify your impact? It’s easy. Just describe what you’re looking for, select the areas of interest and locations the call matches and the site notifies all the groups it’s relevant to, and shows you a list of organisations that might be able to help.

Working with other organisations

One Central Place is also working with the Manchester Probation Service to put the site to work making our communities safer by reducing re-offending rates. Groups can register an interest in working with ex-offenders – an extremely hard to reach group. This puts them in touch with the Probation Service via the site, who ensures they have everything they need in place, advises them on best practice and helps them build capacity. Offender Managers – of which there are nearly 100 in Manchester alone – then match the ex-offenders they’re supporting with suitable groups and activities in their areas with the search facilities on the site. This is just one way the site is encouraging the third and public sectors to work in partnership to make Manchester a better place to be.

All of the data in the directory will be open to anyone who wants to use it via an API – just how people have created new experiences on the web by mashing up content from Flickr, Google or YouTube – now Manchester’s VCS groups can be added to the mix.

Find out more

Visit the One Central Place website to:

• Promote the work of your group to a wider audience.
• Find the details of other voluntary and community groups in specific localities and areas of interest.
• Make contact with similar groups to network/share good practice.
• Access the details of specific service providers and support agencies.
• Register your group’s details for FREE on the directory.

Contact the One Central Place Team by phone on 0161 234 2909 or by email at hello@onecentralplace.org.

About the work MDDA did with One Central Place

Through our Working Neighbourhoods Fund / Deprived Area Fund project work, MDDA worked with One Central Place to develop a specification for the site and help them find a web developer to do the work.

To develop the specification, we first ran a workshop with One Central Place staff to find out what they wanted to the site to do, what information should go on the site, and so on.

We did this by getting people to write down ideas on to Post-it notes – one ‘idea’ per note – and then clarify what had been written down. No technology was involved, all people had to do was bring along ideas and share them at the workshop.

We then worked to clarify the ideas from the workshop. Some ideas were fairly clear, such as wanting the site to have easy to read web page addresses. Others were not so clear, such as ’sophisticated search functions’ – it was our job to try and get more information about those ideas by asking questions a web developer might ask. What do you want people to search for? How should the search actually work? How do you want the search results to be shown on the page? Are there any other websites that have a search feature you want to emulate on the One Central Place website, and so on.

Doing this ‘clarification’ work also helped One Central Place staff to begin to get a sense of the work they would have to do to not just get the site up and running, but to support it and develop it in the long term. Who’s going to administer the site? What training will staff need? And so on.

We also worked with One Central Place to prioritise the ideas for the website. The project had a fixed budget, and not all the ideas proposed at the workshop could be turned into reality given the budget available. So we help One Central Place identify what features the site should have when it launched and what should be developed later.

After the workshop was over, we wrote up a report that started the process of ‘locking down’ the requirements for the website. This would also form the basis of the specification document that would be published for web developers to respond to.

We then worked with One Central Place staff to develop the specification document. A PDF of the specification document is still available to download if you want to read it. The specification took a couple of weeks to finalise as we wanted to give web developers as much information as we could to help them understand what was needed for the One Central Place website, and it also further helped One Central Place staff understand more about the ‘offline’ work that would need to be done.

The specification was then advertised on the MDDA website, the Manchester Digital website, the GeekUp Job Board and some other sites, and after shortlising and interviews, a supplier was appointed.

If you would like more information about this process, please contact MDDA.

From the developers

Read what Virtual Construction are saying about One Central Place.

The website redevelopment brief document is available for download, and the deadline for responses is 5pm, Thursday 9 April 2009.

Key requirements from the brief

• Setting up a new CMS and database, ideally using open source software.
• Setting up new hosting for the site. Suppliers should note that email is currently hosted in-house by the Coliseum. As such, suppliers will be expected to work with Coliseum staff to ensure that hosting arrangements for the new site do not impact the current email hosting.
• Developing a visual design for the new site that is fresh but does not alienate the Coliseum’s core, loyal, local audience.
• Working with Coliseum staff to develop the content plan for the site.
• Work with Coliseum staff to develop a Service Level Agreement that will clearly identify areas of responsibility and other contractual arrangements.
• Suppliers must be willing to develop a friendly working relationship with an organisation that currently has limited resources to support online activities.
• Implement a simple technique in the CMS to link out to a third-party ticket booking / ordering website.
  Implement statistics / analytics for the site.
• Training Coliseum staff in how to use the new CMS.

What the Oldham Coliseum is looking for in the supplier who’ll get this work

Oldham Coliseum currently has a small but dedicated ‘digital team’ to support the development of content for the site and carry out basic administration.

However, that team currently has limited technical resources available to do the ‘screwdriver work’ such as coding new templates in the CMS, server administration, domain management, hosting management, server monitoring, and so on.

Oldham Coliseum is seeking to develop a long-term relationship with a supplier who:

• Will help with the screwdriver work.
• Suggest ideas for ways to develop the content on the site.
• Ideally be based in North West England, but this is not a deciding factor.
• Understands the constraints the theatre has working with a limited budget and a small team, and be honest about the level of support they can provide given these constraints.
• The budget the Coliseum has available for this initial piece of work is not a huge amount of money. As such, suppliers may think what is being is a too much for what is available. However, as already stated, suppliers should keep in mind that the Coliseum is looking to develop a long-term relationship.

Further information

For a discussion about this work and to find out more about Oldham Coliseum’s plans for their website, please initially contact Ella Wrendenfors by email: ellawredenfors@coliseum.org.uk.

The site is the work of eight museums and galleries across Greater Manchester who have joined together to explore the lasting legacy of the trans-atlantic slave trade and look at their collections in a new light, investigating their origins and revealing stories through a series of events, discussion and debate.

www.revealinghistories.org.uk