www.crcplantbiosecurity.com.au

The Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity started operating in November 2005 in recognition of the need to strengthen the plant biosecurity scientific capacity of Australia.

The CRC aims to provide leadership in the development, execution and delivery of plant biosecurity research to:

• safeguard Australia's plant industries
• ensure food security for Australian consumers, and
• improve market access for agricultural exporters.

BoaB interactive was engaged to redevelop the website of the CRC to enhance usability for users, to establish more advanced site management technologies and to upgrade the look and feel.

BoaB interactive worked closely with the client to deliver a fresh new site interface that reflects the diversity of programs of the CRC, using strong colours previously established in various program areas, and a range of animated banners. A parallel e-newsletter, "The Leaflet", follows the look and feel of the website and is available via email for registered users and online for site visitors.

The BoaB team undertook an initial needs consultation to determine structural and management requirements of the website.

As one of the outcomes a more flexible approach to site navigation has been configured, where users are guided into deeper areas of the site by various means such as visually through banners and box elements promoting program areas.

Dynamic tag clouds are deployed in various sections that visualise the extent of information available for various topics.

Various research and student project areas have been configured to deliver dynamic information on projects, programs, publications and people in charge based on an extensive tagging system.

As an underlying foundation an extensive taxonomy and tagging system brings structure to information, both for administration purposes, but even more so for site visitors: By simply browsing the website visitors will undertake invisible tag searches that will dynamically deliver appropriately tagged information to them.