Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Awards (DofE)

The Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Awards is a voluntary, non-competitive programme of leisure activities for those aged 14 - 25, designed to offer a personal and individual challenge. It introduces young people to exciting, positive, challenging and enjoyable things to do in their free time. It encourages friendships amongst those taking part, and across the generations with adults who give up time to share skills and help organise the programme. This programme operates around a significant volunteer base, and aims to develop and motivate the youth of New Zealand to achieve, and expect more out of life.

The Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Awards are another long standing client of Expert Developments, who have been making great use of the MoST content management system. Currently utilising a wide range of Expert Developments' tools, DofE identified a need to modernise their web presence, closer targeting their main focus of youth through brighter colours, and a mobile friendly website. Each section of the site has its own colour theme, providing clarity of site position, and an element of brightness and interactivity to the site.

The revised Duke of Edinburgh website incorporates a wide range of multimedia capabilities such as:

• Quick-links on homepage, with image based buttons for site visitors to access commonly sought resources
• Success stories highlighted, telling stories of achievements through the awards, and the fun that participants have had
• News and events section, providing fresh information to keep people going back to the site, ensuring people can quickly find the most important information, and also helping with Search engine optimisation.
• Donations form; with DofE being a charitable organisation, the ability to donate was sought for the site. This facility was not to be a primary emphasis, but an option was to be provided. Anyone that wishes to donate has payment options available, with invoices automatically generated through the site.
• Smart phone compatibility. With the site adjusting to better suit smaller screens, touch type interaction, and reducing bandwidth reliance for low mobile data caps, this site has been brought closer to the youth, and their expectations from modern websites.

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