PAID-FOR CONTENT
HELP YOURSELF EVERYTHING A PUPIL OR STUDENT NEEDS TO KNOW IN ONE HANDY WEBSITE
Jacob Cullip Design: Curtis Kenwright
FIND THE SITE AT:
www.eastsussexchildren. nhs.uk
T
he East Sussex School Health and Children’s Integrated Therapy Services have recently launched a new website for young people and carers. The aim is to help 11–19 year-olds or their carers gain an understanding of all the many issues young people can experience, how they can approach them and where to find appropriate support. The site provides advice on a full range of issues from abuse and exams to spots and sexuality. Tag ‘21 was recently provided with a preview of the website and reviewed it for this year’s edition and these are our first impressions. One of the positives of the website was the excellent variety of content included in the photo links once you’ve gone to your age-appropriate section from a choice of three clear home page links. In the ‘young people’ section for example, there is a comprehensive set of image links to take you to the information you need, such as how to text a school nurse and book a video call drop-in. An important aspect of the effectiveness of the website is the accessibility. What Tag likes about this is that everything is easy to access as soon as you open a page. For example, if a pupil wants to access a page that is of interest to them, they can find a general topic link at the top of the page or they can scroll down to find out as well. Links are also not far down the page so there’s a choice of routes to access a subject. What we also like is the photography used, the images chosen are very clear and give a message to the viewer on what the page content is about. For example the schools page uses a picture of a
classroom showing school equipment. Another effective piece of the website is the choice of typography on the pages. The reason this is effective is because they have used a sans serif font which makes it clear and understandable for the reader. The choice of colours is based on the NHS branding, and good use of the available secondary colours has been made in the upbeat logo and as accent colours on the pages. The logo on the website is also a big plus. What is good about it is that it is clear to the reader and resonates with them. In terms of its design aspect its simple, slightly chaotic geometric shapes imply a younger target audience and it works well. The naming and logic of some of the links is sometimes a little vague, for example a section of different links relating to puberty could perhaps have been better listed under ‘Puberty’ not ‘Boys’ or ‘Girls’ as these are not informative captions. The contraception section shows all the options well however it appears biased towards young women. Also it only talks about the contraceptive pill in relation to sex rather than also referring to its application for period relief.
The site makes very good use of links to the wider www.nhs.uk website which is used to provide detailed information on specific subjects within any section a user goes into. Overall the way the website successfully reaches out to its target audience is clearly shown through the images used and text. Although some linking details might be awkward, this can be forgiven on a site covering such a wide content and the appropriate information can always be found. Tag sees this as a long-overdue and simple-to-access website to help pupils and carers. 25
