Case Studies

The Welsh Academy is the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers. The Academi represents the interests of Welsh writers (poets, novelists, fictioneers, storytellers, dramatists and critics) and Welsh writing both inside Wales and beyond.

Brief Requirements

The existing Academi website was built in 1999 and over a period of time had become dated. The Academi staff would update the site by creating new pages using Dreamweaver and a basic knowledge of HTML, this led to the existing site becoming unmanageable and unstructured. The Academi required a bi-lingual site which would allow each staff member to be able to update their sections simultaneously without having to be experienced in HTML. The site also needed to have a comprehensive search facility for the events and writers database.

Solution

Creo won the bid to redesign a new bi-lingual content managed site which was required to provide an easy to use resource for the Academi members and at the same time allow the administration staff to update the site on a day to day basis easily and efficiently.

Creo created the site by extracting the data from the old website, creating a new site map which was developed into a logical menu structure and then custom building the content management system to allow the client to manage efficiently the complex page structure.

The site was developed in Coldfusion, HTML and CSS. A cascading navigation menu is used in order to view the sub-categories under each section, the content is displayed over a two panel system showing the article title and main content.

Creo developed a writer’s database which holds the entire members list and is searchable alphabetically, by the authors name or author type. The events diary was also developed to provide the site users with a comprehensive and searchable list of events with the CMS allowing the Academi staff to enter events using a calendar based system and allocating them to a specific region of Wales.

To promote the site Creo provided a HTML newsletter with a user management system to allow the Academi to create, edit and send an e-newsletter to registered users.

Client Testimonial

“As web developers Creo have been responsive to our many and ever-changing requests.  They patiently listened, carefully responded and provided Academi with an attractive and workable solution to our web site needs.”

Peter Finch - Chief Executive

Academi