The RED Directory (Research Excellence Data, or RED) is a joint concept of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the University of Sussex. The first of its kind in the country, it is a tool that all businesses, whether start ups, small to medium size enterprises, large corporations or organisations, can use to gain direct access to world-class knowledge in the South East of England.
Compiled by Universities and University Colleges in the South East of England and reviewed by an expert panel, the information in the RED Directory focuses on business needs, providing commercially focused research excellence with a potential business application, and people with a commercial focus, who can offer advice and support in engaging with individual Higher Education Institutions.
The Business Requirement
SEEDA had specific requirements for the RED Directory in order to fulfil a number of key performance indicators. It needed to be a usable, unfussy and simple tool with an intuitive search capability. The Search functionality had to be simple with clearly defined results, while handling exceptions and mapping key areas of information which would not normally be associated with each other. The website needed a complete visual redesign to improve the interface usability and to provide a more professional look and feel. All of these requirements had to be delivered within an extremely tight deadline.
The Sigmer Solution
Sigmer worked very closely with SEEDA to ensure that all of the requirements were met within the timeline stipulated. The designers worked in conjunction with the development team and SEEDA, constantly checking to make sure that the searches returned the correct information and that the information was displayed in a meaningful and intuitive way.
The emerging design was clean and highly professional. The search functionality was split into a simple keyword search and a more detailed parametric find, or Advanced Search, which enabled the further filtering of results. To complete the contract, Sigmer provided multiple areas of expertise including artificial intelligence, database design, interface design and application development in Php with MySql database and LAMP technologies.
The Result
Delivered within timescale, the RED Directory outperforms the original key performance indicators and is poised to go into its next phase of development. The interface is extremely usable and SEEDA now has access to reporting that gives them the ability to keep track of and create reports of people using the site, the type and nature of searches made and a follow up on users that have made contact with Higher Education Institutions via the RED Directory. In addition, the directory now has different style sheets which allow the clear printing of information.
Professor Anthony Moore, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Sussex:
"I believe businesses, large and small, nationally and internationally, will be delighted with the RED Directory. Increased research and development activity will help businesses grow, become more productive and more competitive in today's world markets. Industry now has a main access point for useful information on research excellence with a potential application to their needs.”
