Friday Institute Website
The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NCSU asked Thirdparty Labs to create a new website to be a public face for the Institute. The site is not only an online interactive brochure, but also showcases the work of the institute, and is a resource for audiences to find up-to-date information on education topics. The work of the Institute is focused on research investigations, the creation of resources, advocacy to improve teaching and learning, service to educators and influence on education related policy. All of these areas are addressed in the new site.
Design
Thirdparty Labs engaged Gamil Design for the graphic design of the site. The design blends with the current College of Education branding, as well as incorporating aspects of the current global NCSU.edu style guide. Logical organization and clear navigation were top priorities for the new design and information architecture.
Content Management
All aspects of the website are content managed using a custom content management system that was purpose-built using Thirdparty Labs’ Carbon content management toolkit. Carbon runs on the LAMP stack and Zend Framework, which is the new standard for NCSU web applications. The object-oriented nature of the Carbon CMS toolkit provides the ability to add modules at any time, so the overall application can grow to accommodate evolving needs.
Specialized features
News articles
Easy to update blog-style news sections that allow Friday Institute staff to publish timely information about the Institute and it’s projects.
Events calendar
Easy to update calendars of events that allow Friday Institute staff to publish detailed information about upcoming events.
Research Projects
Friday Institute staff have the ability to create and manage projects. Projects provide the ability for researchers to publish information about their work. Each project has the following facilities:
- Project outline (Overview, goals, etc)
- Blog for publishing project related news
- Wiki for publishing detailed project information and findings
- Researcher bios
- Area for publishing research papers, featuring:
- Ability to upload documents (PDF, etc)
- Research briefs that describe the papers at a high level, for non-academics to read and understand.
Comprehensive search capabilities
The new website is multi-faceted and uses a variety of methods to store, organize, and display information (blogs, calendars, pages, etc). Providing a comprehensive search facility to allow users to access information quickly is crucial. All components of the system are available to a single search routine, so visitors have quick and easy access to the information they are interested in.
Search Engine Optimization
All public-facing components in the website are optimized for search engines. Following SEO and usability standards and practices during the construction of the site ensured the highest possible search engine rankings.
ADA Compliance
Usability standards are followed across the website. We have worked with NCSU on a number of high-profile public websites in the past, and are well versed in the University's usability best practices.
