Web research, design and e-learning project for a new coaches’ education initiative
With a new coaching initiative in the pipeline, Snow Sports New Zealand (SSNZ) approached us to explore the needs and goals around web communications for their new initiative, looking at how best to facilitate the learning and development of snow sports coaches in New Zealand utilising the web.
The coaching initiative is a cooperative between SSNZ, SPARC and the New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance (NZSIA). Snow Sports Coaching NZ is committed to the educating and skill-development for all coaches in six different competitive snow sport disciplines.
Facilitaing the educational programme
Snow Sports Coaching NZ’s main objective is to upskill and help educate the coaches in New Zealand. With this objective in mind we researched the goals and the anticipated user needs, then set out to create a visually clear and easily navigable design focusing on communicating the core elements of this new educational programme.
What begun as a research and design venture, evoloved into a full site development project, complete with content strategy, a CMS install, Social Media intergration, and an e-learning solution in the form of online coaching modules.
Our approach
Snow Sports New Zealand itself already had a well-established web site and a strong web communications system. As a result, our design for Snow Sports Coaching NZ had to take on a similar visual theme, following their current brand guidelines but adapting just enough to recognise the difference between the two sites.
We worked closely with Snow Sports Coaching NZ to craft strong content and create solid resources helping develop their new coaching education system. Furthermore, we worked with the NZSIA and their current web technology company Treshna Enterprises to service a booking system for the coaching courses, mapping the user-journeys from various prompts on the coaching site through to the bookings and registrations on the NZSIA site.
Finally, utilising SPARC's guidlines, we created two online e-learning modules to be used as tools for new coaches starting out on the educational pathway. These modules involved core visual and interection design elements, plus effective copywriting keeping the messages clear and concise. Furthermore, they required some in-depth Javascript and PHP coding.
Our approach involved the following methods:
- Researching the business goals for this new initiative, and the types of web site users and their needs.
- Utilising the research gathered to create a site structure suiting the organisation’s needs and goals.
- Designing a visual theme that was similar to the current SSNZ theme.
- Creating a navigation structure that was tailored to the educational pathway being implemented.
- Gathering, collating and re-working the information around the qualifications and the organisation itself.
- Producing new visual diagrams to communicate the organisation’s structure and the educational programme it was offering.
- Creating and editing both text and photographic content.
- Designing optimal user-journeys between two web sites and placing appropraite call-to-actions.
- Implementing social media tools and news posting strategies.
- Designing both visual and interaction elemtents for the Online Modules.
- Writing in-depth Javascript and PHP code to sustain the necessary elements for the Onine Modules.
- Providing strategical guidance for the launching and promotion of the new site.
“Tactic Group made the process of designing this website very user friendly, the knowledge of each individual showed through in the way they can take a seemingly complicated process and simplify it. This project involved different organisations but the communication between these groups was made extremely easy by the use of Basecamp. This made it very easy with one central point to make comments or view diagrams and page drafts.”
“I have now used Tactic Group for two separate web based projects and each time they have exceeded my expectations. I will be using Tactic Group again in the future without hesitation.”
- Adam Dooney, Director of Coaching and Sport Development, Snow Sports Coaching NZ.
Technical skills and services we performed, i.e. the jargon!
- Business goals analysis
- Helping the client understand the goals for their Web site and establish metrics to measure its success.
- User research
- Researching the audience base to provide information and services that meet the needs of the Web site's users.
- User experience design
- Utilising user/market research, our designs create a high level of customer satisfaction, which in-turn helps our clients build a stronger rapport with their customers.
- Interface and graphic design
- Applying sophisticated visual communication and design techniques, resulting in a Web site that is both intuitive and visually satisfying.
- Information architecture
- Designing a logical and intuitive Web site structure, making it easy to navigate and find information.
- Content generation and copy writing
- Crafting new text content in a format that is both search-engine friendly and tailored to how people read on the web.
- Content strategy
- Devising strategies for creating, managing and publishing content, helping our clients to keep their information fresh and informative.
- Interaction design
- Streamlining online services making them simpler and more efficient for the end user.
- Java Script, PHP and CSS coding
- Writing code in these Internet languages to achieve quality results without sacrificing performance.
- Social Media strategies
- Creating and implementing appropriate Social Media techniques on suitable platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Youtube, Vimeo and Flickr.
- Analytic installation and configuration
- Installing an analytic solution, such as Google Analyctics, to allow performance to be recorded and monitored.
- Image editing
- Selecting and edited of photographic content for placement in content pages, banners and articles.