Russell Jones & Walker

Three years ago Russell Jones & Walker created a new web site in order to ensure that they were fully compliant with accessibility legislation.  Partnered with Usability experts WebCredible, Openia developed an easy to use and navigate, fully accessible web site, and continues to work in close partnership with Russell Jones & Walker to add new features and customisations.

The web site offers a very successful example of how principles of usability and accessibility can translate into increased traffic, and three years down the line, it has remained true to its original strategic goals.  The ongoing partnership between Openia and Russell Jones & Walker also demonstrates the way in which Openia creates a positive customer experience.  

A typical exchange might be:

• Russell Jones and Walker float an idea to see if it is possible to implement.

• Openia do some investigation, and come up with several solutions, budgets and time-lines.

• A solution is agree and Openia create a detailed specification which includes functional, programmatic, and stylistic detail.

• A functional draft is produced, and feedback and changes implemented.

• The finished customisation is placed on the live site.

Some specific Plone customisations Openia has done for Russell Jones & Walker are:

• A custom biography object.  A biography-type object is a common Plone customisation.  In the case of Russell Jones & Walker, the Team Member allows them to create contextualised news for each biography, create automated links to fields of expertise, and create bibliographies of published articles.  The layout of this is entirely automatic, and the staff at Russell Jones & Walker merely need to fill out the form.

• XML and RSS news feeds.  Openia created a special news object to accept an external news feed in XML format from more than one source and compile them into a single index.  The original is then automatically contextualised so that it appears on pages with related content, and each contextual feed is RSS-enabled.  Openia has also created a search-engine friendly news archive for this section.

• Secure forms.  Openia continues to build interactive forms to help visitors make meaningful contact with representative of Russell Jones & Walker.  These forms include queries for various forms of discrimination, personal injury, and general contact information.  The processing for the forms includes detailed summaries and opportunities to return and edit information before submission.

• Interactive Wizards.  Openia has created an interactive help tool to assist visitors in determining if they have a basis for making a claim.  New questions present themselves depending on how the previous question is answered.  The visitor can return at any time to alter answers before submission.

• Online recruitment system.  Openia has created a custom online recruitment system, so that an applicant can upload a C.V. and covering letter and file an Equal Opportunities form online.  The details of the vacancy itself are passed through the system with the applicant information, and the equal opportunities information is held in a secure folder and can be downloaded in a csv format for working with offline applications.  To manage this system, the staff at Russell Jones & Walker just need to fill in the details of the vacancy and the custom system does the rest of the work.

Three years ago Russell Jones & Walker created a new web site in order to ensure that they were fully compliant with accessbility legislaton.  Partnered with Usability experts WebCredible, Openia developed an easy to use and navigate, fully accessible web site, and continues to work in close partnership with Russell Jones & Walker to add new features and customisations.

The web site offers a very successful example of how principles of usability and accessibility can translate into increased traffic, and three years down the line, it has remained true to its original strategic goals.  The ongoing partnership between Openia and Russell Jones & Walker also demonstrates the way in which Openia creates a positive customer experience.

A typical exchange might be:

• Russell Jones and Walker float an idea to see if it is possible to implement.
• Openia do some investigation, and come up with several solutions, budgets and time-lines.
• A solution is agree and Openia create a detailed specification which includes functional, prgrammatic, and stylistic detail.
• A functional draft is produced, and feedback and changes implemented.
• The finished customisation is placed on the live site.