Case study
DfT Accident Investigation Branches
Websites powered by Context
The problem
Following the decision in 2004 to establish a Rail Accident Investigation
Branch, Epic was commissioned to develop a website for all the Department
of Transport’s accident investigation branches – Rail,
Air and Marine.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Marine Accident
Investigation Branch (MAIB) websites both went live in early 2005
with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) site coming online
to coincide with RAIB’s official launch as the UK’s
independent rail accident investigatory body in October 2005.
One of the key requirements of all the Branches is to publish reports
and bulletins regarding investigations. Each website acting as the
primary source for the Branches to share information with the public
and industry. Although the RAIB has yet to publish any reports,
the AAIB and MAIB between them have thousands of reports - even
including one on the RMS Titanic!
The solution
Epic, using our content management system Context, has created
a suite of websites that is easy to manage by the branches. The
sites have been designed with an easy-to-use navigation structure,
enabling users to find the information and resources they are looking
for.
Additionally, Epic undertook a content audit and migration of existing
AAIB and MAIB reports and documents held on the Department for Transport
website. Appropriate metadata was applied to these documents to
ensure that they could be categorised in the CMS and retrieved via
searches and browsing on the websites.
Additionally the websites meet all WAI level 2 accessibility guidelines.
The Outcome
Improvements to the websites are backed up by the data. Since the
new Epic-designed AAIB and MAIB sites have been launched, daily
unique visitor numbers have increased by over 500% and average page
views have increased a massive 2000% demonstrating that with a clear,
easy to use site, not only do more people visit but they stay on
the site longer.
Downloading of reports has increased - in fact in August the AAIB
site transferred a massive 33 gigabytes of data! This volume of
data transfer requires a robust hosting solution – provided
by state-of-the-art technology at Epic’s own webfarm, ensuring
the maximum level of service to our customers and site visitors.
For more information about our websites visit:
http://www.epic.co.uk/content/what_we_do/websites.htm
or more information on the accident investigation websites visit:
www.raib.gov.uk
www.maib.gov.uk
www.aaib.gov.uk
The report on RMS Titanic and the role of SS Californian can be
downloaded at:
http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources/titanic.pdf
James England
November 2005
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