Case Studies

As Scottish Natural Heritage prepared for the launch of their new website they realised the value of providing training to the staff who would be involved in writing the web content for the new site. A member of the team had already experienced one of Hilary’s Writing for the Web courses at Publishing Scotland and turned to them for support. Hilary, in association with Publishing Scotland, was able to put together a tailored one day training course that would help SNH writers and editors to get started on the task.

Some of the issues tackled on the course:

• Writing for specific audience groups – SNH has a number of important audience groups with different needs
• Finding a writing style that would be direct, informal and engaging but also authoritative
• Structuring content to make it easy for readers to find
• Using the words that make sense to the audience

The course helped writers and editors to focus on the purpose of their web pages and create well targeted copy that will successfully promote Scotland’s environment.

Hilary Phillips is providing a series of training courses for Publishing Scotland that focus on written communication. These one day training courses are a popular element in the Publishing Scotland Training programme. Courses include Writing for the Web, Advanced Writing for the Web, Plain English and Report Writing.

Publishing Scotland is the trade association for publishing in Scotland. The courses attract delegates from commercial publishing companies as well as from a wide range of public sector and voluntary sector organisations. Writing for the web was introduced to the Publishing Scotland programme in early 2008 and proved a popular addition to the established programme. As a result, the Advanced Writing for the Web course has been introduced for 2009 and will be offered for the first time this June. Courses in Plain English and Report Writing have also been offered this year in response to demand from member organisations at Publishing Scotland.

The Clyde Waterfront website has been developed to promote Scotland’s largest waterfront regeneration project, representing £5 – 6bn of investment along the River Clyde from Glasgow city centre to Dumbarton. Hilary works in association with Innovation Digital, researching the project content for the website, a key element to the overall value of the site. She contributes news and events and writes regular content for the monthly email newsletter. The close association with digital branding experts, Innovation Digital ensures a co-ordinated approach to every aspect of web development.

Hilary’s involvement with the Clyde Waterfront website began in 2006, when she contributed to the high level content on the main Clyde Waterfront site. Her contribution has grown with the project, which now encompasses a whole family of websites. Clyde Waterfront Education was launched in 2008 and Clyde Waterfront Heritage is the latest addition to the family.

In 2008, the Clyde Waterfront website attracted a major web award. The site was awarded Standard of Excellence status by the Web Marketing Association, scoring highly for its design, ease of use and content in the non-profit section of the awards which are recognised as the premier showcase for website development.

The site continues to go from strength to strength, with monthly visitors to www.clydewaterfront.com reaching the 10,000 mark in March 2009.