scottish information commissioner
the project
The Scottish Information Commissioner's website was designed by Martin Hughes and Alison Davies. The aim was to produce a clean, clear, easy to use website which catered for two distinct target audiences: the general public and Scottish public authorities. The site featured strong branding with the prominence of the organisation's official logo and formalised colour scheme. The design of the site established an online presence with impact and gravitas.
With over 750 pages the Commissioner's website was the most comprehensive project to date that the lead designer of fourfiveone has been involved in. The website incorporated dynamic content via an online database designed by fourfiveone (using PHP and SQL) which listed all of the Commissioner's decisions. These were searchable by year, exemption, authority etc. fourfiveone also designed a custom-built content management system which enabled the Commissioner's staff to upload decisions directly onto the website. Template HTML pages were designed with editable fields to enable the Commissioner's staff to upload webpages using Macromedia Contribute. This allowed the Commissioner and his staff to update and maintain the website in-house.
The site also contained an automated e-newsletter subscription facility, monthly newsletters were sent to the 1500 subscribers (in HTML or text format), a 'quick find' drop-down menu, extensive site map, printable versions of every page, an "e-mail this page to a friend" facility, streaming media content (e.g. videos of Newsnight interviews, a copy of the Commissioner's freedom of information TV advert), news and newsletter archives, press releases, links to relevant legislation, online booking forms for conferences and online surveys to gauge customer satisfaction.
The site attracted many favourable reviews and comments from its users in its 3-year history (see the Law Society of Scotland's reviews here: www.journalonline.co.uk/article/1001404.aspx and www.journalonline.co.uk/article/1004253.aspx). The website has been recently redesigned and is now maintained by another company.
Webpages designed for the Scottish Information Commissioner's website
Screenshot of the online decisions database for the Scottish Information Commissioner's website
