The Teachers Union of Ireland - their web journey
We're going to take a look at the Teachers' Union of Ireland and their website. We'll look at how their site has changed over the last number of years and how our Siternity Content Management System (CMS) has made it an effortless process.
Why they chose Webtrade in the first place
- Re-design does not mean re-build - Once on Siternity, a re-design is just a "reskin" of your website.
- No need for content reload - Once it's on the site it remains on the site.
- No risk of losing Google rank - We'll protect your Google Ranking while working on the site.
- CMS and software are always up to date - Constant upgrades, what's under the bonnet is always most the most recent version.
- Focus on design, user experience, best practice and most importantly focus on your goals and needs.
Now let's look at their journey
2007 - Pre Webtrade 
The Challenges
- Create a new website from scratch.
- Make sure that the look and the feel of the website was modern, clean and fresh.
- Improve navigation and content structure
- Design a website that the TUI members would use and want to return to.
- Develop as site that the TUI had easy access to in order to update content
- Incorporate a CMS that everyone could use.
2008 - Webtrade Design
The Result
- New Content Management System (CMS) that allows the TUI to update their website instantly.
- Improved Navigation for users of the site - all the information was only one or two clicks away.
- Prominent call to actions on home page.
- Every page on the website was set up with its own SEO.
- Cleaner, fresher, more vibrant design. Website was easy on the eye and the user was able to navigate their way while on it.
- Design was reflective of the TUI brand.
- Content was easy manageable, the first stage of user defined content was put in place (content written for 2nd, 3rd level users etc.)
- Members section for TUI members.
What happened next?
In late 2010 Webtrade recommended a review to the TUI, we wanted to analyse the website's traffic usabilty, information architecture and general user experience while on the website. Taking our advice the TUI commissioned a redesign of the existing website.
2011
The Challenge
- The TUI didn't want start all over again. Knowing they were already on the Siternity CMS they wanted a simple solution and redesign
- Content was important and already written, it was essential not to lose any content, nor have to upload it all again.
- Required a complete overhaul of their landing page to make it more accessible and inner pages also needed to reflect the homepage.
- Improved content driven navigation - If someone from 2nd level, 3rd level or further education were land on the page they could navigate to a page dedicated to their sector of education.
- Alter the colour scheme of the website to be fresher, softer and more vibrant.
- Incorporate social media to give information allow people instant access to the most recent information.
- Enhance the Members Experience once they are logged in.
- Improve the TUI website rankings while not losing their SEO and Google ranking.
The Result
- Improved navigation throughout the site.
- Developed content driven sections that allowed different sectors of the education sector (3rd and 2nd level etc.) access dedicated information more freely.
- New layout with call to actions more prominent on the main homepage and inner pages.
- Integration of their social media buttons and RSS feeds linking out to their various channels.
- Like and comment buttons for Facebook are now optional extras within the CMS on the website.
- Prominent and detailed newsfeeds that can be created, updated and published by the TUI regularly.
- Integrated SEO tool built into every page - Helping the TUI get found in Google for the correct content, while keeping their old SEO on each page of the old website.
- Improvements to their Content Management System - allowing them more access to more parts of their website, e.g. Banners and navigation menus.
In 2012 - a touch up!
- Seeing how simple it was to upgrade in 2011 the TUI asked us to carry out some design work to their homepage
- We designed some call to actions buttons for their homepage in order to help the user navigate around the website.
The Future?
We hope to continue our long standing relationship with the Teachers Union of Ireland and we are looking forward to the next incarnation of their website down the line. It's important to move with the times and we are glad to be able to help all of our customers in doing so.
If you'd like to get a website similar to the TUI site please just drop us an email as we would love to talk to you.
You can also view the full TUI website at www.tui.ie