SNN March 2016

THE NEW WEBSITE OF THE
NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST
New Zealand Spinal Trust
(NZST) General Manager, Hans
Wouters, says the hope for the
organisation’s new website is
simple: that the NZST becomes
the go-to organisation and
website for all things spinal.
The organisation, which
Professor Alan Clarke established in 1994, has recently
upgraded its website, and the result, in terms of
aesthetics, function, and resources, is markedly different.
“The site has a number of new features specifically
provided to help people solve problems and develop
independence,” said Wouters.
The new features can be found on the Resources
Tab and the Support Tab, which are in addition to the
ongoing nationwide services. Users will also find a list
of “Helpful Businesses”, and another list of “Amazing
Organisations”. There is even a page specifically for
carers - an incredibly important group of people to the
NZST. The charity is also making available for the first
time, for free, back issues of our Spinal Network News
magazines. “A final hope, is that the site makes it easier
for readers to preview our publications and order them
easily online - from our new “Back-On-Track” e-Book, to
hard-cover books and CD-Roms.”
The NZST website is a great asset for the organisation.
After funding was secured from The Lions Foundation
in December, 2014, the build process began in early
2015, and went live on Christmas Eve, 2015. It has
been four years in the making but it has been worth the
wait. “Our old site was well past its use-by-date and we
decided we needed to have a fresh start,” said Wouters.
The redesign process began with the simple question:
“What do we want our website to do?” The entire
NZST team was engaged to answer this important
question, as the answer would be different for each of its
specialised departments.
After much consultation and collaboration, the answer
came in two main branches. First, the website needed
to communicate clearly who the NZST is, and what
it can offer to the people they expect would need to
visit the Trust. The second desire was for the NZST to
become the go-to resource for all things spinal in NZ,
and the website would be a critical conduit for that.
Website design company, Digital Operative, in
Christchurch, gave the NZST the confidence that they
“really got what we were about” and could express that
in the new site. Wouters said that Gary Lee and his
team have partnered with the NZST in a generous way
and will assist the Trust in maximising the opportunities
the new site can present. The design brief for the
NZST site was simple: it needed to look modern and
vibrant, be navigationally intuitive and, project life and
hope during and beyond a significant illness or injury.
It also needed to be accessible for various disabilities;
an efficient means to share NZST’s knowledge; sell
its publications, and receive donations. In addition,
it needed to have simple content management that
the staff of NZST could conduct themselves to keep
ongoing costs down.
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