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British Council

The United Kingdom's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations

Solution:

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERVICES

Industry:

Education

Business size:

Enterprise

Outcome

What we have conducted:

  • User research
  • User experience and service design
  • Portal development
  • Website hosting set up
  • Analytics
  • Full project lifecycle management

Business
challenge

weaknesses

  • Tight deadlines
  • Low amounts of features

strengths

  • Global trust on the market
  • High demand for British Council educational materials

Project
Description

IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council. British Council is the International English Language Testing System that tests English proficiency across the globe.

Our mission was to design, create, and host a WordPress platform for the applicants who want to prepare for the British Council test. The platform is a preparation website that contains 8 pdf files and 51 webinar videos (liable to increase) for test-takers to access upon registration. Users should fill in a registration form with several required fields to access the website content.

Email Notification functionality was also required, as well as integration of analytics, user research, and reports.

As for the design, British Council has provided branding items required for the website. On our part, we had to develop a design that is responsive and supports multiple devices.

Digital Platform & Technology

The client wanted to create a counterpart of the main site, where users who are interested in taking the test will prepare for it. Based on the needs and goals, they preferred to design it on WordPress.

Communication Framework

To establish good communication, we decided to diversify our channels and use different platforms for each specific goal.
Email
microsoft teams
Skype
Jira

Specification

Upon close discussion of the product with the client, we pointed out the basic algorithm of actions required for surfing and using a website, which further was supplemented and improved.

Goal:

Website with all the essential information, guides, and content for successful British Council test preparation. For the client's business processes, we implemented user analytics for a better understanding of the target audience and marketing activities.

Main flow:

  • Find out everything about British Council exams
  • Take online tests
  • Study materials and resources from British Council
  • Apply to British Council prizes
  • Apply to become an British Council recognizing organization
  • Get access to teaching resources
  • Free teaching webinars
  • Save Projects.

Team

Backstage

Be it face-to-face brainstorming, developers meeting or simply whiteboard meeting, it always helps to achieve the main goal of the project.

Whiteboard Meeting

A proper design and content layouts were at the heart of the client's requirements. To make sure we`re on the same page, we gathered a whiteboard meeting to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.

Brainstorming

Since the project had a tight schedule,our analysts and PM`s had to meticulously control every part of the project to meet the final deadline.

Dev Meeting

Although the concept of the website was pretty straightforward, we always gather developers to make sure if everything goes in the right direction.

Internal Communication Flow

Jira was used as a main communication flow platform to track down the progress of the project. We also used Skype and Emails for casual chats and notifications.

Project Management Methodology

Scrum is a management framework where one or more cross-functional, self-organized teams create a product in stages.

First, we worked on the preparation of website design, initial DevOps, business analysis, and then slowly jumped into WordPress development and Quality Assurance stages.

Project timeline

01

CONSULTING

  • Familiarizing with the client's ideas and goals
  • Proposing solutions and the scope of work
  • Analysis & Exploration
  • Defining deadlines
  • Identifying possible risks, website structure, security issues, and building an overall plan for addressing such issues
  • Forming development guidelines
02

Product DESIGN

  • Building several prototypes to find the most suitable solution
  • Following up with the client regarding the design options
  • Making sure the design goes hand in hand with the client`s branding requirements
  • Cross-platform design development
  • Preloader design
  • Building overall architecture and customer journey
03

Product Engineering

  • Assigning engineers and executors for each role
  • Designing and building the website front-end
  • Creating the website architecture
  • Performancemonitoring
  • Conducting performance tests
  • Integration of features required by the client

Design

The client gave us a free hand in design development which enabled us to work on different options and prototypes. We presented several prototypes for both desktop and mobile platforms choosing the one that better reflects the client's vision.

User persona → Site map → Wireframes → user interface

User persona

Designing a product based on worked out user personas who are going to use a product or interact with a brand.

Site map

Logically structuring pages and their content within a domain.

Wireframes

Creating a prototype for a product, presenting future layout of different interface elements and their interaction: navigational systems, search forms, news feeds, and other components.

user interface

Designing product’s interface and accomplishing final steps to move a product to the development stage.

Implementation
On Client’s Side

1.

Launch

Despite the tight time schedule, we were able to successfully meet the deadlines, conduct all the testing, checks, as well as work on different design options.

2.

Transfer

As the project was completed and all the testing was carried out, we migrated the website to the client's servers. Additional security and performance tests were made afterward.

3.

Education

Post-implementation support was required to follow up with the marketing department regarding customer data and registration issues.

What our
client said

“Computools was selected through an RFP process. They were shortlisted and selected from between 5 other suppliers. Computools has worked thoroughly and timely to solve all security issues and launch as agreed. Their expertise is impressive.”

Mona Madbouly

Global Web Officer at British Council

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