The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) website is one which undoubtedly contains a great wealth of knowledge. Its main purpose would appear to be the provision of information for members, students, and the general public. However, on presenting a stereotypically dull and disorganised homepage, ICAS falls at the first hurdle in doing so.
To be fair, the site does have some positive attributes. The volume of information it holds makes it a valuable source of knowledge for members and prospective members alike – the problem arises because this information is presented in such great disarray. The main issues with the site stem from the fact that it contains such a vast amount of detail. On comparison to the websites of similar professional bodies such as ACCA, CIMA, and ICAEW it is clear that the ICAS site lacks in style, structure and user appeal. Alas, its greatest quality may also be its greatest weakness.
For those prospective CA trainees who are lucky enough to find what little information ICAS is willing to provide for them, it is unlikely they will be enthralled by the prospect of joining an organisation which appears incapable of even successfully designing a website. To give graduates a better informed idea of why they may want to join ICAS, the site should develop a section dedicated solely to their interests. The CIMA website has taken this idea even further by directing the majority of their homepage towards graduates, while managing to maintain clear links to other sections of their site. A detailed description of the course structure and CA exam results can be accessed via the existing ICAS website however these facilities require upgrading for greater ease of use. The new enhanced site should also provide a list of potential employers and case studies of current ICAS students.
The ICAS site is neither well presented or aesthetically pleasing. There is no recurrent theme and layout differs greatly from one page to the next. The homepage should be easily identifiable as belonging to ICAS and in order to help the user understand the way in which the site works, ICAS would do well to follow the shining examples of uniformity presented by all of its counterparts. ICAEW in particular has a website which is not only pleasing to the eye but also exceptionally well ordered and user friendly. ICAS would benefit from a homepage which allows the user to navigate easily around the site. At present, the homepage does not take into account the fact that many all of its users may not be interested in the website’s entire content. An idea of how this may be done can be seen at the ACCA homepage which splits users into specific categories that contain subtopics more particular to each user. Such a provision would rid ICAS of its almost unusable toolbar. Also, in this way, the general public could be spared unnecessary use of accounting terminology which would be better limited to members only sections.
Finally, from a technological view, ICAS again falls short. In the last week, I have accessed the page each evening to find no updated content. It is possible to subscribe to RSS feeds (although users could be forgiven for being unaware of this fact), however this seems futile when the site is so rarely updated. ICAS must update the site more regularly and consider how technological advances can be advantageous to their users.
ICAS should now execute a series of changes which will improve their online service greatly for the benefit of all users, members and the general public alike.
Tuesday 23 October 2007
Monday 22 October 2007
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