Alpha feedback
WSAD Alpha, a prototype which contains ideas and solutions for some of the most important needs of the website’s users, was ready at the beginning of April. It was by no means the complete website and it didn’t represent our plans for the visual design, but we released this version because we wanted to hear comments and feedback about the approaches we are taking.
Feedback came from journalists, competitors, WorldSkills practioners such as Experts, Delegates and team leaders, as well as stakeholders from WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, WorldSkills International and ACTVET. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. Here’s some of the feedback.
We seem to be heading in the right direction with both the layouts and the site structure. One user described it as “simple, clean-cut [and] easy to navigate”. We got lots of interesting suggestions about details which would improve the site. For example, one user would like to sort competitors alphabetically by country on the skills_single layout, “so I can see the team side by side”. Another would like to be able to enlarge the pictures in the part “The challenge”. All these suggestions have been logged and we will take them into account as we work on the beta version of the site.
The site structure, particularly the way we’d elevated competitors, skills and countries, was generally well received. The “side programmes” such as One School, One Country and the conference aren’t obvious enough at the moment, but we will work on ways to highlight these important areas. Some WorldSkills practioners didn’t like the way skills were not shown in skill sectors by default. We will work to highlight these sectors in the design, but we still think the benefits of this approach, such as the potential for customisation and personalisations as well as have customisable skill sector layouts, outweigh these concerns.
We worked hard to incorporate sponsors and partners throughout the site rather than putting them on the top navigation. There’s evidence that an integrated approach would be the most effective: “Partners” was one of five of the top navigation of the previous competition site yet that section received 0.6% of total unique page views. Nevertherless sponsorship is obviously very important and this needs to be reflected in the structure of the site.
We received lots of useful feedback on the visual design direction, such as the Bridge and Capital Hyatt being too large relative to other buildings in the skyline outline. We also discovered that it is important to maintain the ratio of the flag as specified by the country or region so our proposed hexagon treatment would not be possible. Our interpretation of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017′s brand guidelines also sparked lots of discussion. The brand book was only just underway when we started the project. While it is certainly more evolved now, it’s emphasis is on day to day business stuff such as Word templates, business cards and Powerpoint presentations and merchandise such as T-Shirts, tote bags and beach towels rather than the web. Our initial approach was to suggest a related but different visual language - particularly a palette - which was easier to work with on the web and created something clean, youthful and modern. This approach led to a contrast with the brand book which was too stark. In the last week, we’ve already put a lot of work in to creating a new digital language which remains faithful to the brand guidelines and we hope to be able to show this new visual language soon.
That rounds up some of the most important points from the alpha feedback. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. If you didn’t get chance to provide your feedback but would like to tell us what you think, please get in touch.