To get insights into the hands of educators across New Zealand, ERO decided to develop a website, accessible to educators, housing the ERO’s evidence alongside localised international data from the EEF through the International Evidence Toolkit API feed.
A key role of the Education Review Office (ERO) Te Tari Arotake Mātauranga is developing and providing robust evidence and insights to shape education practices in New Zealand. To support education improvement and best practice, ERO is integrating New Zealand evidence with the latest international insights - in collaboration with the UK-based Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).
The Education Review Office Evidence and Insights landing page
While aiming for a user-friendly information architecture, ERO recognised the need to focus on tasks of their target audience.
The website had to be visually aligned with and adhered to ERO's overall brand guidelines, and ensure easy navigation to and from the parent site. The challenge was to create a separate but cohesive website tailored to a distinct audience while maintaining a seamless connection to the main ERO website.
Making it Count: Teaching Maths in Years 1 to 3 Summary page
Our comprehensive approach defined our clients' goals in the project to help us in designing the right solution.
Through analysis of the business objectives and user testing with prototypes, we were able to design it with an intuitive user experience in mind. Our process ensured the website felt distinct while remaining part of ERO’s core brand.
In terms of functionality, we developed a suite of content blocks and templates to give ERO content authors full control and flexibility. We developed a RealTime integration with Education Endowment Foundation to ingest the latest International Evidence to the site. A core part of the development was the creation of a document library to host ERO over 10 years of reports, guides and other materials. This was developed to allow users easy navigation through filtering, search and the ability to read documents online or via PDF. Underpinning all our development was ensuring we met Government Accessibility Standards.
Security and performance were also front of front mind, so the site was developing using the Latest version Umbraco CMS and Hosted with Umbraco Cloud, which takes advantage of the all the benefits of Microsoft Azure and Cloudflare's CDN.
The International Evidence Toolkit and one of the strands 'Arts participation'
Our collaborative efforts resulted in a multifaceted website that aligns seamlessly with the ERO brand.
The website offers an easy-to-navigate structure, prioritising the top tasks for educators. The inclusion of standard components like pull quotes, CTAs, image galleries, and toolkits that feed pages enhances the overall user experience.
We successfully implemented PDF conformity, Google Analytics, and XML sitemap integration to boost visibility and accessibility. We have hosted on Umbraco Cloud, with the launch of the website, we have also conducted standard security testing and SEO reviews, ensuring optimal performance.