About the Project
The Brief
The Education Cooperative (TEC) is the oldest educational collaborative in Massachusetts. It provides educational programs and services for students between the ages of 3-22 years of age with moderate to severe special needs. TEC was in need of a cohesive website to better communicate the important programs and services it provides for its students and member districts. It needed a website that could serve as a marketing and communication tool to flexibly grow alongside its programs and initiatives. A contemporary, user-friendly and accessible design was needed for it’s visitors, along with more flexible menus and pathways to information. Moreover visitors would need to intuitively access the information they were seeking. A more robust solution for news, events, and courses was also needed.
Our Approach
We met with all the stakeholders and the leadership team to determine what problems needed to be solved and goals for the new iteration of the website. We determined that a more flexible content management platform was needed. Working closely with the team we developed a plan to review all content on the existing website and build out a brand new menu structure with clear pathways to content. We integrated content found on external Google Sites and moved that under them main website. Section navigation was implemented to show content related to that section. A modern blog and events calendar was rolled out to give more tools for reporting on news and broadcasting event information to the public. Given the students TEC serves, accessibility best practices were used while designing and building out the website. TEC’s three schools were given their own sections with a different design and navigation to highlight all their offerings with updated photography and integrated events and news feeds. A custom course solution was developed to better align with the needs of the professional development team and the educators they serve. Behind the scenes technology improvements also were implemented to ensure the site was secure and using web development best practices.
The Result
The new website boasts a new, flexible contemporary content management system and page builder functionality that gives staff the ability to update pages, write blog posts, post events, and post courses. The menus are flexible allowing pages to be added easily so the site can grow with TEC. The website is mobile-friendly and built using accessibility best practices. All information on the site and pathways to that information have been examined, fine-tuned and updated to best communicate the most current information to TEC’s visitors.