A bilingual English & Welsh Drupal website of information and resources for Estyn
Happy Children in the playground

Client
Estyn
Department
Communications, Events & Stakeholder Engagement
Estyn is the office of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, responsible for inspecting quality and standards in education and training providers. Their role is to provide advice to the Welsh Government to promote improvement in the delivery of education and training.
A classroom with children and a teacher
Website Express did a great job redesigning our website. They made the process straightforward and stress-free, delivering a modern and user-friendly site that perfectly meets our needs. Their expertise and dedication have significantly improved our online presence, and we are delighted with the results.
Gina Rathbone
Stakeholder engagement manager
Project brief
Estyn required a new bilingual website to improve service to their stakeholders, including educators, policymakers, and the public. The objective was to create an engaging platform that provided easier access to information, reports, and valuable resources.

The site needed to integrate with Estyn's internal systems for seamless data exchange and comply with Welsh Language standards, while also allowing internal teams to efficiently create and manage content.

The project aimed to establish the website as a primary resource hub, increasing user engagement and resource accessibility.
Key objectives
Ensure bilingual content (English and Welsh) and compliance with Welsh Language standards.
Provide access to useful resources, case studies, thematic reports, and other improvement-based materials.
Interface with Estyn’s internal systems such as Cygnum (planning and deployment system) and People HR (HR system).
Enable dynamic HTML report generation and data exchange between systems using industry-standard methods.
Provide the ability to amend the website in-house and host data dashboards such as PowerBI.
Offer a support package for ongoing maintenance and security updates.
Discovery workshop
Approach
The Estyn website development project began with a comprehensive content audit, cross-referenced with Google Analytics data and Estyn’s organizational goals. This was followed by stakeholder workshops involving inspectors, principals, headteachers, teachers, parents, and childcare providers to map user journeys, create personas, and prioritise requirements.

The project timeline was developed collaboratively with the internal team to ensure resources and key stakeholders were available for testing, feedback, and approval, mitigating risks such as approval delays and remote working challenges due to COVID-19. Content was restructured to ensure accessibility within three clicks, and wireframes were created using a mobile-first approach. The iterative design process included feedback from stakeholders and compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA requirements.

Technologies

The new estyn.gov.wales bilingual website was developed using tried and tested open-source technologies:

Drupal
Symfony
PHP
Apache Solr

Solution

Bespoke design & user experience
Brand-led design
User-Centric Design
Created an intuitive and engaging user interface, prioritising the needs of different user groups.
Responsive design
Responsive Design
Ensured the site is fully responsive, offering optimal viewing experiences across all devices.
Accessibility compliance
Accessibility Compliance
Designed to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards, ensuring the site is usable by everyone.
Estyn homepage desktop screenshot
Estyn homepage tablet screenshot
Estyn homepage mobile screenshot
Estyn HTML document mobile screenshot
Estyn HTML document tablet screenshot
Estyn HTML document desktop screenshot
Enhanced Functionality
HTML document
HTML document
Developed HTML document functionality for modern, accessible document creation, replacing legacy PDF documents.
Automatic Parent and Carer Report generator
Automatic Parent and Carer Report generator
A bilingual system for publishing Parent and Carer Reports to the general public, sourcing information from the Virtual Inspection Room and personalising the content by school sector, age and status.
Database Integration
Database Integration
Automated data feed from the core database to update the public-facing website daily, replacing a previously unreliable process.

Results

The new Estyn website was successfully launched, providing a vastly improved online presence. 

User Feedback: Positive feedback from stakeholders, highlighting the enhanced usability and modern design.

Performance Metrics:
Increased user engagement, reflected in longer session durations and lower bounce rates.
Improved accessibility and searchability of reports and publications.

Notably, when tested using Google PageSpeed Insights, the Estyn website, has achieved a 100% rating for Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO. Annual traffic figures have rocketed by over 229% since its launch.

100
Accessibility
100
Best practices
100
SEO
+229%
Traffic increase
Key achievements
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Enhanced User Experience
Significant improvements in user navigation and overall site usability.
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Accessibility
Compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, ensuring the site is accessible to a broader audience.
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Modern Design
A fresh, modern design that aligns with Estyn's brand identity and mission.
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Scalability and Flexibility
A scalable platform built on Drupal, allowing for future growth and enhancements. Originally built on Drupal 8 it has since been upgraded to Drupal 9 and Drupal 10.

The Estyn website redesign project showcases how strategic planning, user-focused design, and robust technology implementation can transform an online presence. By collaborating closely with Estyn, Opencentric delivered a modern, accessible, and user-friendly website that effectively meets the needs of its stakeholders. This project not only enhanced Estyn's digital footprint but also set a solid foundation for future growth and improvements.

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