The ITI Scottish Network has passed another milestone today in entering a closed-group beta test phase. The test model is being assessed by users and experts in marketing and communications, with final refinements to be added to the site in the coming weeks.
Cutting-edge design techniques
One of major features of the redesign is its accessibility. Page length has been reduced significantly, while new techniques such as CSS-based layout ensure that the web site retains a near-identical look and feel on all major browser platforms. The typeface used is a common, clean sans-serif, and many users will no doubt appreciate the fact that the site does not use hard-coded font sizes. Each of the site's major sections can be accessed from the ever-present navigation bar at the top of each page. The right-handed menu bar provides links to more specific functions within each section, as well as to external web pages and sites where appropriate.
Collaborative site management
With the management of the network still done by volunteers, an early design decision was made to ensure that the web site is open to team work, so that no one person is responsible for uploading content to the whole site. A rich-text format edit box allows administrators to edit news articles and diary entries using a good range of formatting options, without having to know anything about HTML or the web layout.
