Athletics Northern Ireland today launched a new website to cater for the local growth in athletics and to cater for the ongoing needs of the online community. This includes a new domain name www.athleticsni.org to fit in with the company branding. The site was developed by Belfast based web company Silverink who Athletics NI have been with for the last number of years. The online system and database is through Primo:Solutions.
With the website being a huge content-based site, the emphasis was always going to be on usability and functionality. Clear headings and sections allow the user to find exactly what they looking for, be it a Coach Education course, enter a race online or search for their nearest club; the site allows you to get to your end destination as quick as possible.
The site has a clearer more attractive design and the use of standardised CSS with a grid layout ensures maximum compatibility with all modern browsers.
The Homepage features a results, news, events and Twitter feed along with shortcut buttons to the most popular areas of the site. There is now search engine friendly URLs while social bookmarking is integrated right through every page allowing the user to share on their personal platforms. Inline multimedia (video and mp3) will further enhance the site.
There is now an interactive Clubs Directory section with a map of the affiliated clubs in Northern Ireland as well as a list section with club details and searchable functionality. Behind the scenes a new content management system (CMS) allows editing time to be reduced.
Roger Walsh from Silverink said:
“Silverink worked closely with Athletics NI to revamp the existing site and bring it up to date with modern standards based guidelines. We added an interactive Clubs database as well as enabling the publishing of ANIs twitter feed onto the home page.
As well as modernising the underlying code and making the site search engine friendly, the main focus was to provide a cleaner, more consistent grid based design with a focus on the site user. We want the users to be able to access relevant information as quickly and easily as possible”
Website manager Clare McCoy said:
“It is important to understand how our audience are using the website and the new site should allow quick and easy navigation. Calls to action are more clearly highlighted while the new CMS will reduce the amount of editing time”.
Visit www.athleticsni.org to see the updated version!
NOTES
Please note that it may take a while to get used to the new site but that all content has been copied over from the old site. The sections remain the same and you will find quick links on the bottom of the homepage (green boxes) to the key areas and a further menu option at the bottom of the screen.
It is very important to replace this domain name and any quick links to your favourites and update any links on club/partner websites.