we are: London

Abu Dhabi Media Company

Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), formed in June 2007, is Abu Dhabi’s national media company which includes Abu Dhabi TV, Abu Dhabi Sports and Emirates TV Channels, four radio stations and various publications including Al Ittihad (Arabic), The National (English) newspapers, Zahrat, Majid and Super magazines.

Requirements

We are:london were appointed by ADMC to help launch ‘The National’ newspaper website and help put processes into place to help with other ADMC projects.

With ADMC building up a new digital team, we are:london were asked to provide support across the various digital media projects providing process management, project management, user centred design and development skills.

The National Newspaper website

Approach

With tight deadlines across various project channels, as highly skilled consultants, we are:london’s team were tasked to implement processes for various projects to ensure that ADMC staff had the support necessary to successfully deliver these digital projects.

Working closely with key stakeholders within ADMC, we are:london’s team identified project goals and deliverables and helped plan for the long-term delivery of these various projects, helping to minimise risk and ensure successful launches.

We are:london have continued to provide on going support throughout 2008 as ADMC has been recruiting it’s digital team, across various aspects from strategy, project planning, user experience design, graphical design and template build.

Result

ADMC have successfully launched ‘The National’ website and are in the process of launching several other digital projects over the coming months, across TV, web and mobile platforms, which have had the continuing input and support from we are:london.

Abu Dhabi Media Company, Design, Research, Strategy competitor review, information architecture, Online surveys, rapid prototyping

National Curriculum

The QCA needed to further develop the curriculum.qca.org.uk site, in order to incorporate additional resources and to further enhance the user’s access to information.

The Project

The key issue with the revised design was to ensure that that it remained intuitive and easy to use and did not impact the user’s ability to locate important statutory information.   In addition to assessing the usability of this new site, the QCA wanted to conduct a study of three of their other sites in order to further understand their user’s needs and behaviours.

Solution

We lead the user research on this project, working with both the development agency, Reading Room, and internal teams within the QCA.   We used a range of usability review methods during the course of the project, including both qualitative and quantitative techniques:

• Online surveys – in depth quantitative analysis of user demographics and behaviours
• Remote testing – qualitative study with a range of users, conducted remotely and reviewing two separate sites: www.nc.uk.net  and www.ncaction.org.uk
• Lab based research – full usability lab with existing users of  curriculum.qca.org.uk, obtaining feedback on their site experience as well as assessing their navigation experience of the prototype
• Accessibility review – review of the prototype with a visually impaired users as well as a review by our own in-house accessibility experts to advice on W3C compliance

Outcome

This comprehensive approach to usability research provided the QCA with both understanding of their site’s users and actionable recommendations for further development and change. Prior to this research the web team had only a limited understanding of who their users were and most importantly, how they used the information available to them on site. Our research provided valuable insight into important taxonomy, navigation and content issues which, when corrected, will further improve the overall success and user experience of all QCA sites.

COI, Research Accessibility review, Lab Research, Online surveys, Remote research