ELUS

Groundwork commissioned sdesign1 to build a web application that allowed companies to track environmental legislation and their level of compliance with it. The result was ELUS, short for Environmental Legislation Update Service, which is a closed web application available only to subscribers.

Each company comments on the legislation and what they are doing to comply, thus creating an audit trail. Legislation displayed to users is filtered according to relevance to a company's activities and their legislative area i.e. England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland or Northern Ireland. An admin section allows Groundwork staff to add and edit legislation and also manage client trials and subscriptions.

Perhaps the most notable feature of this web application is its intuitive interface design which displays real attention to user needs resulting from a user centric design process. We believe that users should be required to learn as little as possible and remember as little as possible in order to use an application.Key to this is also good web accessibility and application usability.

Background:

This application replaces a version stored on a CD which connects to an online application for the purpose of managing comments. It also replaces the old admin section used by Groundwork to manage companies and users.

Brief:

Groundwork required an application that had the following key functionality

• Trial version mode
• Auto subscription email reminders
• Auto Expiry of account if subscription not paid – functionality limited to viewing document titles and old comments
• Admin management of client details
• Client registration page
• Edit details and preferences page
• User login area
• Admin management of documents and areas that allows:
  • Creation/editing of users
  • Creation/editing of documents
• Filtering so user served up ‘documents’ they ticked as being interested in (when they registered)
• Each document has comments functionality i.e. view, add, edit, delete

Before:

As the screenshot shows, interface design was minimal and browser window has been stripped of it's usual toolbars and buttons. Why it was thought necessary to do this isn't clear as removing the functionality a user expects from their browser is a poor usability practice.

After:

Click to see full size and if using keyboard use escape to close.

In addition to satisfying all the requirements outlined in the brief the new application is now Level AA compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) and has a clear and consistent navigation and page structure. Colours reflect the Groundwork branding.

Users can easily see where they are by using the breadcrumbs menu and they can immediately switch tasks using either the right hand side menu or the horizontal tabs.

Layout is liquid so users can maximise use of their monitor.

More screenshots:

Click to see full size and if using keyboard use escape to close.

Viewing Legislation:

Modifying legislation:

Modifying a Company:

Searching:

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