Advice Now
Advicenow is an independent, not-for-profit website providing accurate, up-to-date information on rights and legal issues. It was founded by the Advice Services Alliance, the coordinating body for independent advice services in the UK.
What AdviceNow needed
AdviceNow needed a large sign-posting site into which they could add links and comments to legal resources in the UK. Additionally they needed to create their own bespoke educational resources and guides to legal information.
The Technical Challenges
All the items in the AdviceNow database needed to be stored in an XML format so that it could be reliably shared with other government organisations. The OTHER media integrated with AdviceNow's proprietary taxonomy software, letting them categorize content in the required way but edit this through the simple interface of OTHER objects.
The Results
AdviceNow have added a large number of guides and amassed a huge collection of carefully categorized links that are both browsable and searchable.
The syndication of the links directory is fully automated so that each night the data is validated for consistency and streamed to their partner organisations.
Award Winning
Shortly after launch, the site was awarded the Plain English Campaign Award for 2004.
This is awarded annually for a site that:
- uses plain English writing;
- is attractive, but not at the expense of clarity;
- makes it easy for the reader to find their way around; and
- makes it easy for the reader to get the information they are looking for.
