Andrew Ford Lyons » Nigel Parry

Winner of Charity Times ‘Best Use of the Web’

andy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:29:46 +0000

The Teacher Support Network website was awarded ‘Best Use of the Web’ by Charity Times Awards 2009! Our nomination comes as a result of the successes of the charity’s website, which I relaunched in August last year.

For the new site, I worked with web developer Nigel Parry and designer Ken Harper (Iron Clad Images), and you can read more about that here as well as at Nigel’s site. The judges said teachersupport.info “addresses a critical need. The site has a great architecture with interactive content served upfront. You can sense the passion behind this site, in spite of a modest budget. The judges admired the written entry submission which was passionate and clear and the great use of social networking tools.”

The relaunch ensured that our website became an even more useful and easy way for teachers to access our services. More details about the award are given at teachersupport.info.

(Photo: From left we have Hannah Essex, Head of Communications & Business Development; Julian Stanley, Chief Executive; Sally Baker, Client Experience Manager; and yours truly, Digital Media Manager)

Teacher Support Network redesign

andy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:44:43 +0000

Yesterday evening I launched the new Teacher Support Network’s group charity website. This has been a long time in the making with a number of revisions that reflects the pros and cons of the group process, but in the end, I think we came up with a stunning design that’s both unique and highly functional.

I worked with web developer Nigel Parry and designer Ken Harper (Iron Clad Images) over the last spring and summer to develop a new look and better navigation flow for the site as well as a number of tools designed to increase the usability and accessability of the site. The result is years beyond the previous one. We moved off of Drupal and over to Interactive Tools’ Article Manager 2.

For more on this project, visit Nigel Parry’s website.

To see more about the creation of this site, visit the Article Manager forum thread here.

Teacher Support Network under reconstruction

andy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:35:29 +0000

I’ve been digital media manager for Teacher Support Network since the start of the year and currently we’re in the midst of a major website redesign. I’m working with Ken Harper of Iron Clad Images and web designer Nigel Parry. The image attached here is of the current website, a Drupal installation. Teacher Support Network consists of a collection of ambitious charities and social enterprises aimed at helpingover-worked, under-paid and under-appreciated teachers in the UK reach a more healthy balance between work and life.

Being a part of this project has given me a far better look at and greater appreciation of educators here and in the U.S., and a lot more empathy for those teachers who put up with me from primary school on.

We’re switching off of Drupal to a customised, independent cms, integrating the site with the RightNow crm and giving it an all-together different look and architecture. Transitioning from the current brochure-site look to something that approaches an actual online service-oriented tool has been a great case study in site usability dos and don’ts which I hope to illustrate here once the project is complete.