The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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Vol/53 No/6 2014 DECEMBEr 2014/JAnUArY 2015 The Linguist 13 FEATURES A platform for success Future developments The third benefit – and, in my view, the most important – is the new platform on which the website has been built. The resilient and flexible open-source platform links to our membership database and makes possible the kind of commonplace services that users would expect of our website: online membership applications, exam and CpD workshop registrations, and secure online payments, to name a few. These will follow in due course, now that the foundations for their development have been set. In addition to enhancing user experience, they will reduce administrative duties for staff and free up time for more productive activities. The developments have been ranked in terms of priority and resource availability, as part of the strategic and operational planning for 2014-2017. In other words, the website launch is just the start. It has been a real pleasure to oversee this project and I would like to thank all those involved – Karen stokes FCIL in particular, who volunteers much of her time to the Institute. We, at Dunstan House, are grateful to those members who have already provided positive and constructive feedback, which we will continue to collect and review. I look forward to seeing the website evolve as we work on the next developments in the coming months. M any of you will have seen the new CIOL website, which was launched in early september. I hope you agree that it presents, as in the words of Chair of Council Keith Moffitt at Members' Day, an excellent 'shop window' for the Institute and IoL Educational Trust. I would say that the three key benefits can be summarised as 'new image', 'improved structure' and 'future developments'. New image The most immediately noticeable benefit is our image, which has been dramatically modernised and 'brightened up' through the new design. The Website Working Group, formed in order to steer the project, met regularly, and an early and unanimous decision was to maintain the same strong branding we have used for the past decade. The impact of this recognisable and confident brand has been further strengthened through a lighter, cleaner presentation (in simple terms: less black, more white!). In addition to integrated social media sharing options for the user, and a more frequent delivery of original news items, the design serves to further strengthen the Institute's online presence and image. This allows us to work more easily towards our goal of being an ever more authoritative voice in the language industry. We're interested to hear your views; please send your feedback to jack.sellen@ciol.org.uk. Here's what other members have said: "I really love the new design. It's very engaging and has a really easy interface on both mobile and desktop versions." Michelle P, ACIL "Good, clean and less cluttered" Janet F, FCIL "Great, very bright, light and lively. It promises a lot for the future." Deborah L, FCIL "I love it! Fresh, smart, to the point. It definitely adds up to a new era for the Institute. My congratulations to all of you for promoting our work in such a prestigious and effective way." Stella V, MCIL HAVE YOUR SAY Jack Sellen unveils the new CIOL website Improved structure We have a great deal of content to share with our varied 'customers' (new and existing members, exam candidates, the media, other language industry professionals), and the development of a new website provided a golden opportunity to review every piece of it. This audit was no small task and I would like to thank all CIOL and IoLET staff for reviewing and updating not just the accuracy of the content for which they are responsible, but also how it is presented. These efforts have resulted in a much more coherent and logical arrangement of the information available to users, which, coupled with the search functionality, allows users to find what they are looking for much more quickly and easily; something that is made clear by the website's analytics. SHOP WINDOW: The brighter new look (above); and CIOL Chair of Council Keith Moffitt celebrates the website launch at Members' Day