457 Skillnz redesign

Skillnz is a joint initiative of the New Zealand government, and industry and trade organisations to raise awareness of workplace learning programmes.

‘Your guide to workplace learning’

The Skillnz website has been developed by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and provides online support for a print and radio campaign targeting employers and employees. Motive was brought on to bring the website up to required technical standards and tie the look-and-feel in with the June 2005 campaign.

A feature of the redesign is the single-page ‘Quickstart guides’. These guides introduce the benefits of ‘learning on the job’ and a summary of the programmes available to employers, employees and young people. The website then goes on to provide eligibility criteria and suggests how to ‘get involved’.

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Skillnz homepage (detail) Raising awareness of ‘on-the-job’ training and qualification programmes

Quickstart guide Paths through the website are suggested by visual devices such as numbering (detail)

Skillnz survey Collecting feedback to improve the website

Upskilling the website

“…structuring the website around likely tasks and information needs…”
Andy Kirkwood
Creative Director

“Our approach has been to structure the website around the likely tasks and information needs of both first-time and repeat users,” explains Andy Kirkwood, Motive’s creative director.

“One of our first questions was ‘what is workplace learning?’ The redesign begins to answer this by linking to the programmes from the navigation bar [at the top of each page].”

At a technical level, the website was revised to meet public sector standards prescribed by the New Zealand Government Web Guidelines.

“[Motive] listened to what we wanted and added value and expertise.”
Natasha Hall
Web Analyst, TEC

“We had high expectations and a long list of requirements,” explains Natasha Hall, TEC’s web analyst.

“Motive’s understanding of, and appreciation for W3C, e-govt guidelines, and best practice methodologies along with their user-focused approach was both impressive and reassuring. They listened to what we wanted and added value and expertise.”

Learning from [user] experience

Post-launch, Motive added a survey to the Skillnz website. The survey asks users how they found out about the website, how well it met their needs, and asks for suggestions on the information they would like to see added.

A link to the survey is provided on the homepage and quickstart guides. If the survey is not completed before the user leaves the website, a pop-up window is launched when the visitor links away or closes the browser window.

The redesigned Skillnz website was launched July 2005.

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