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www.valdeloire.org: a new, more user-friendly website

www.valdeloire.org: a new, more user-friendly website

Published on 22 December 2010 - Updated 07 January 2011
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 14 ans

Loire Valley quality label, Mission Val de Loire

Designed primarily for inhabitants and stakeholders of the Loire Valley, the website can be consulted to find out about Loire landscapes, keep track of initiatives under way and stay informed (news, calendar, newsletter, RSS feeds). The new version facilitates access to information thanks to a user-oriented design and has been given a user-friendly makeover with photos and videos being highlighted.

What's new

The new website features photos of panoramic views of Loire Valley heritages through the seasons. Multimedia is employed to the full with swift access to educational videos on the Loire Valley World Heritage.

The home page also presents the latest news and forthcoming events at a glance, as well as all the useful shortcuts to online services (Flickr Gallery or Dailymotion, web review, etc.), the Mission Val de Loire's range of services or the major projects under way to preserve and enhance the Loire Valley World Heritage.

The menu offers 5 sections:

news
heritages
actions
plan your visit,

o taking you to the websites of the main tourist institutions in the Loire Valley

interactive map,

o showing which stakeholders are involved in the Loire Valley World Heritage (local authorities, heritages, tourism)

o with access to a specific page for each town or village of the listed site, offering personalised information. Local news and forthcoming events in the surrounding areas will be available very shortly.

The challenges of overhauling the website

The overhaul of the website aimed at meeting 4 challenges:

a political challenge: tailor the website to the guidelines of the Mission Val de Loire, giving precedence to inhabitants' assimilation of the values of the listing and the guidance of stakeholders responsible for the quality of landscapes
an editorial challenge: facilitate access to content and adapt the content for optimum web consultation. A panel of ten or so users took part in designing the website to ensure it is effective.
a public service challenge: make the website accessible by conforming to the legal requirement for public sites to abide by the French General Accessibility Framework for State Institutions (RGAA) as at 14th May 2011. There are a few points outstanding, but significant efforts have been made.
a technical challenge: build an easily upgradeable website. The choice was made to rely on a sound and "open source" content management system, ezPublish, integrated by the Nantes-based company Mazedia.