Having developed several websites for the Open University Mathematics and Computing Faculty, Online Solutions were commissioned to design and create a new website for Professor Brenda Gourley, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University.
The brief was to create a platform for the publication of the Vice-Chancellor’s speeches and publications, establish a place for her to express opinions on topical education and social concerns using a blog and to show a human face to the role of a Vice Chancellor. It was important that the new website raised the Professor’s international profile as this would then in turn benefit The Open University as an academic institution and help to cement existing partnerships as well as establishing new ones.
As well as designing and building the website, Online Solutions developed a bespoke yet simple to use Content Management System (CMS) using a combination of PHP and mySQL technologies to provide content authors with total control over all text and imagery that feature throughout the website.
Additionally, the system was specifically developed to provide non technical administrators with simple to use functionality that would allow for total client autonomy in terms of maintaining the website's menu structures, further information panels, related links and promoted content elements.
The website, integrated within the main Open University's load balanced hosting infrastructure, was also developed with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Accessibility in mind. Therefore, the website and content management system incorporate numerous SEO/Accessibility specific features such as the use of CSS for layout, relative text sizing functionality, search engine friendly URLs (yet dynamically driven), structured and configurable window titles and page meta data and configurable image alt tags to name but a few.