Background
Following the success of the Cruise Orkney website (www.cruise-orkney.com) in 2016, Orkney Islands Council Marine Services contacted NB the following year to redevelop the main port authority site at www.orkneyharbours.com.
At that stage, the site was suffering from poor usability due to a confusing dual navigation and a lack of compatibility with mobile devices. In addition, the marine VTS staff were finding the CMS very inefficient and time intensive for carrying out content updates, particularly with regard to shipping information.
Challenge
The goal was to create a new site which was much simpler for visitors to use, made better use of impressive content, and most importantly could save time for marine services staff.
Solution
During the strategy phase, NB worked closely with Orkney Harbours staff to identify a much simpler and easy-to-navigate site structure. The result was fewer top-level items, and quick links for frequently accessed areas of the site.
A significant challenge in the project was the need to integrate with other systems. Through a mixture of detailed planning, on-site configuration and co-operation with other organisations, NB devised solutions for presenting Live Weather information, AIS data, and more recently, integration with the Denbridge Port Management Information System (PMIS) which allows live shipping data to be presented in various places on the site. Most importantly, it now means that VTS staff only need to make updates in one place, not three.