MetService Annual Report 2011

MetService Annual Report - homepage

Website: no longer online - view screenshots

Size: 9 pages

Government status: State-Owned Enterprise

My professional status: contractor at Designworks

Website client: Meteorological Service of New Zealand

Dates: September-October 2011

Categories: Project manager, Website designer, Front-end developer, Govt web standards tester, Content-loader, CSS-based layout, e-govt/WCAG compliance, Other CMS, Government websites, Small sites

Brief: Designworks had put together the print version of MetService's Annual Report, and needed a digital version to add to the website. They asked me to build a full set of linked web pages which would then be inserted into the standard MetService page template.

Achievements:

  • Turned this project around in double-quick time, delivering the full set of content-loaded pages within a couple of days
  • Designed the Corporate governance statement page myself, as this was not included in the set of design templates
  • Improved the accessibility of the website by tweaking the colours selected for the web palette and improving the colour contrast.

My responsibilities included:

  • Project management and ongoing liaison with the Designworks team in order to achieve their aims for the website, and to work through any technical and implementation issues with them
  • Time management including the development of timelines and ensuring that I delivered the website within a tight timeframe
  • Development of the website in CSS and HTML 4.01 Transitional
  • Hand-coding in HTML 4.01 Transitional to a high level of accessibility, including carrying out e-govt accessibility compliance testing
  • Testing colour contrast of the various page background/text colourways, and tweaking those that did not initially achieve colour contrast accessibility requirements
  • Designing the Corporate governance statement page myself, to reflect the print version layout and match the styling of the rest of the site, as this had not been included in the original design files
  • Extensive testing of the pages at all stages of the development process, ensuring complete consistency across the following browsers and platforms:
    • WindowsXP: Internet Explorer IE6, IE7, IE8; Firefox 3, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4
    • Windows7: IE8, Firefox 3.6
    • Mac OSX: Firefox 3.6, Safari 4
  • The creation of a CSS print stylesheet for the page - tested in IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Chrome and Safari on both Mac and PC
  • Ensuring that my pages had been validated using the W3C Markup Validation Service and that they conformed to HTML 4.01 Transitional requirements
  • Ongoing liaison with the client to ensure that the pages were working as expected, and to provide additional HTML, CSS and content graphics as required.

A nice wee site with a very strong design - good fun!