2011-2014
Tactile redesigned the You for Youth (Y4Y) Professional Development Portal that supports Program Quality in 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
The U.S. Department of Education and the Offices of Elementary and Secondary Education had just launched a professional development portal for users working in federally funded after school programs, but they needed to make it more engaging, more secure, and more useful as a one-stop shop for professional development support.
For this project we translated existing Y4Y assets into a content management system on federally approved servers, enhanced mobile compatibility, and improved the existing information architecture. Additionally, we deployed three new interactive modules and provided training, webinars, and technical assistance to after school practitioners across the country.
increase in registered users
increase in monthly site visits
increase in mobile usage
Tactile inherited a set of assets containing custom code that was authored in a combination of .NET and ColdFusion. Tactile translated these assets into a LAMP stack based content management system and hosted it on federally approved SSL-secured servers.
Our approach was to redesign the website from the ground up using a mobile-first methodology. This meant ensuring compatibility across all platforms and screen sizes, creating a cleaner and more direct information architecture, and optimizing all content for the fastest possible load times across a broad range of connection types.
User engagement with the portal reflected regular monthly increases as well as steady annual improvements each year. There was an increase of over 300% in registered users over the life of the project, a 175% increase in average monthly visits, and a 165% increase in average monthly page views. The feedback on training evaluation forms was very positive and indicated that users found online and in-person training sessions both informative and enjoyable. Out of 16 categories, Tactile earned a total of 13 “Exceptional” and 3 "Very Good" ratings in the Federal CPARS rating system for our work on this project.
All of it - I wish I was introduced to this five years ago!
After school Director When asked what part of the Y4Y website or training made the greatest impression on them