Live and online: The Epilepsy Association of Scotland
| 'My
main aim was to design a site that was visually interesting
and give people the information and answers that they
were looking for quickly.' |
The Epilepsy Association of Scotland promotes and campaigns
for the welfare and wellbeing of people with epilepsy. There
are 49 staff and 20 volunteers. The annual income is £1
million. When the organisation recently wanted to redesign
its website - www.epilepsyscotland.org.uk
- PR officer Allana Parker took on the responsibility. 'Our
existing website was about 18 months old and really needed
an overhaul because we had too many pages of text,' she explains.
'The website is a crucial part of our role in providing information
and raising awareness about epilepsy. Our phone helpline is
available only during office hours and can get very busy,
so having information online, like answers to frequently asked
questions which people can access day or night, is really
vital. The website also enables people who may not want to
talk directly to someone to get information about the condition.
More generally, the website is important for getting information
out to the public.'
| 'Designing
a website
is not just about putting existing information in a
different format, it involved a lot of rewriting to
make the language as straightforward as possible.' |
'My main aim was to design a site that was visually interesting
and give people the information and answers that they were
looking for quickly. It's really important not to reinvent
the wheel, so I had a look at other websites to see what worked.
After I'd designed the initial template, the rest of the staff
gave their input and then we looked for a consultancy service
to do the technical side.'
'We chose a company that offered training for staff to update
the website and provided a secure server, which will allow
us to accept online donations in the future. We would like
the site to become much more interactive, with chatrooms,
discussion groups, and possibly a doctor's Q&A feature,
in the future.
| 'Overall
the process has been really positive, although it has
been really hard work!' |
'The whole process from the initial plan to being online
took about three months - longer than I expected. Designing
a website is not just about putting existing information in
a different format, it involved a lot of rewriting to make
the language as straightforward as possible. Also making a
commitment to being online is something that has to be carried
through - the site has to be constantly updated along with
all our other publicity and information material. We have
made the site very information-intensive to give as much help
to people as we can.
'It's hard to tell yet whether the website will significantly
increase the overall demand on our services. We know that
it is increasing awareness of them. Overall the process has
been really positive, although it has been really hard work!'
|
