Learning Languages

Learning Languages - homepage

Website: tki.org.nz (site has since been redesigned) - view screenshots

Size: 35 pages

Government status: Government Ministry

My professional status: contractor at CWA New Media

Website client: Ministry of Education

Dates: January 2005

Categories: Website designer, CSS-based layout, e-govt/WCAG compliance, eZ Publish, Government websites, Small sites

Brief: to create a new design for the Learning Languages series. There were 5 sub-sites in all, which needed to match each other while still retaining some individuality. A homepage was also needed to introduce all of the sub-sites.

This site was housed within the main TKI template. As such it was subject to the same rules for templating as the rest of TKI, which was written in XHTML/XML and used CSS-only formatting.

My responsibilities included:

  • Design of the homepage and 5 sub-sites - Oui!, Ja!, ¡Si! Hai! and Hao!
  • Ensuring that my design was possible within CWA's strict XHTML/XML template for TKI, and ensuring that the site would be fully accessible and easily navigable
  • Ensuring that my design was achievable using TKI's CSS-only layout
  • Designing the sidebar navigation system down to three levels.

In order to maintain consistency of the brand, as a starting-point for my design I used a combination of the existing online Languages in the New Zealand Curriculum series, and the printed material created by Learning Media for each of the Learning Languages courses. It's an interesting challenge trying to create a number of sites using only shades of blue, teal and turquoise - and finding a single shade for the homepage which complements them all.