About OSIFA
The Ontario government established the Ontario Strategic Infrastructure Financing Authority (OSIFA) as an innovative financing tool that can be used by municipalities to renew and build critical public infrastructure assets.
Problem
We were awarded the contract with a very short timeframe. The existing design was very text heavy, cumbersome and out of date. The site feel was inconsistent from one section to another including the web based Application. Also the pages did not print properly..
Solutions
Inorbital worked with the client to arrange and organize a more fluid and logical navigation while implementing a direct content link to the French page. We were able to retain graphics and photos from the client that we used to create a cohesive look and feel. This gave the site a dramatic improvement and level of professionalism you would expect from a public sector financing agency.
Inorbital also implemented a site Content Management Solution (CMS) with an application database and tiered administrator and content owner access. By implementing the CMS from the outset we were able design with restrictions imposed by the CMS while exceeding other of the client’s objectives with services and functionality. The content is now much easier to modify and sections and menu items are easily added with the browser based – Word-like - editor. There was also a need to implement a 2 step approval process for content changes required by the technical specifications and the client’s approval protocols. This content delivery is arranged almost exclusively using style sheets for each: structure and style allowing for any major style change to take place site wide from either of these two files.
Navigation is organized so the French and English content is directly linked from each page. I.e. The French tab takes the visitor directly to the English equivalent content which is all prearranged in the CMS when adding and building the page.
Results
The time to launch was eventually extended which allowed Inorbital extra time to train and tweak prior the site’s final launch in November.
This is a rare project that both the client team and the development team are proud of through excellent cooperation and collaboration with all people involved. This site is successful because it works well within the technical and accessibility criteria set by the client. At the same time the project resulted in a CMS which manages about 98% of the site content, allowing the site owners complete control of the website.
In the end the site represents an elegant, modern design with a common layout and consistent organization representative of OSIFA’s line of business.
Client:
Ontario Government (Ontario Financing Authority)
Team Members: Tony Tullio (Direction), Katie Yumol
(Design), Asghar Ali (Programming)
Technology: ASP, MS Access, CSS, JavaScript, and HTML