services

Young Scot WOW – What’s on where

What’s On Where is an online searchable database maintained by volunteers, offering information for young people on volunteer opportunities throughout Scotland.

The website has a simple and bold design to give young people an uncomplicated user experience, as demonstrated on the homepage for the service. It uses a highly developed database structure to give young people quick and intuitive access to relevant results when searching for activities and events.

The Lucene search tool has been integrated into the website and offers ranked searching, date-range searching and sorting by any field. Storm also implemented Geodistancing and Google mapping functionality to enable the user to interact with the topography of search results. Search results are viewed on the map labelled by descriptive balloons containing information and links to activity detail pages.

To compliment the filtering and geodistancing features of the site, other key elements include:

• Search Query Spellchecker - offering alternative ‘Did you mean?’ keywords.
• Predictive Search - supported by a customizable dictionary.
• Related Search – suggestions offered using AJAX.
• Partners’ Activities – promoting relevant activities offered by Young Scot’s partners.
• Quick access to category areas and popularity within each section
• Popular Searches Tag Cloud

NHS Highland

The NHS Highland website (www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk) provides access to key medical services and health information across the UK’s largest, and most sparsely, populated NHS Board.
The website was built using the content management features of Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS). As well as providing a simple to use platform for NHS Highland’s devolved publishing team, MOSS provides a robust and flexible platform for meeting the needs of a variety of audiences.

Potential patients can access information about services such as hospitals, GPs, health centres, dentists and pharmacists or be directed to ancillary services such as NHS 24. Visitors looking for general health advice can find national and local information about staying healthy.

The website addresses the needs of all potential users by providing content in a number of minority languages such as Gaelic, Arabic and Polish, with prominent links to accessibility tools, such as Browsealoud.

Lloyds TSB

The Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales website (www.lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk) represents a key marketing and communication channel for the foundation.

The Foundation primarily supports small to medium size charities, many without a professional fundraiser. Previous research had highlighted that one in three people downloading the application form were not also downloading the guidelines for applicants which were essential for increasing the success of applications.

The new site supports charities by making the application process clearer and incorporates a six-step walkthrough application guide including an eligibility and application check list. The effectiveness of this approach was guided and validated through usability testing.

The website is underpinned by Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (MOSS), and supports devolved publishing across the site, empowering those who own each area of content to manage and update it. Usability testing helped mould the website to meet the needs of charities.

CR SMITH

The CR SMITH website (www.crsmith.co.uk) was designed and integrated into Storm ID’s content management system.

The content management system provides a rich platform for promoting the wide range of services provided by the company including the design and installation of windows, doors and conservatories.

The website boasts a number of interactive online features allowing visitors to: arrange home visits and phone calls; request online and hardcopy brochures; sign up to email news letters; and experiment with colour options through the colour selector tool.

Using a wide selection of real life customer homes and case studies was central to the design of the website to give customers a real insight into the products on offer, and help them make decisions on their own project. The project also includes ongoing digital marketing campaigns.

Scottish Government Email system

Storm has been responsible for providing the Scottish Government with an email and SMS text messaging service (http://register.scotland.gov.uk) since 2001. The system is currently used by all departments across Executive to keep members of the public up-to-date with the latest news.
A registration and authentication system invites members of the public to subscribe to a range of different news services, and allows members to manage their subscription online and ensures that personal details are held securely inline with the Data Protection Act 1998.

HTML templates provide rich designs for emails tailored to specific audiences and topic newsletters. Subscribers select their interests from a diverse range of 19 topics from arts to transport. Users can also select a regional based newsletter to keep on top of developments within specific areas of the country.

Emails are authored with text, hyperlinks and images using standard templates. The email templates have been tested and are supported by all the most popular email clients including Outlook express, gMail, Yahoo and Hotmail.

Publishing workflow can be set up where appropriate to ensure that all email and SMS content has been approved and is signed-off from the central communication team.
A full reporting suite allows the Scottish Executive to measure the popularity and effectiveness of the different newsletters sent out. This information can be used to drive future marketing campaigns and to tailor content to each audience.