Link Web Services

Client: Project: URL:

National Archives of Australia Vrroom Website vrroom.naa.gov.au

Project Overview

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Link Web Services was appointed by the National Archives of Australia (NAA) to develop an educational website for students of upper high school to college age.  The website was titled Vrroom, for Virtual Reading Room and was built to serve as a way for students to gain an understanding and appreciation of primary sources as a key resource for research. The function of the website was developed to fit within curriculum guidelines to serve as a classroom tool for teachers.

Consulting Approach

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The Vrroom website required a very technical approach to build it, however the front end of the site needed to be highly usable for the target audience and also provide a learning experience. Link collaborated very closely with NAA staff in order to determine how the front end was presented and various user testing was performed throughout the process. The design of the website needed to be visually appealing to the target audience in presenting what could be perceived by students as boring content.

Development Solution

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In order to present an understanding of Primary Sources and how they may be used, the Vrroom site provides a search interface to NAA records selected to complement curriculum subjects. Users may search the database using keywords or browse by pre-determined categories. To gain a further understanding of how to interrogate the research data sample of varied uses are provided in the form of Document Studies, Close Readings and Quick Picks. Students may choose to register with the website in order to collate records that form part of their research for a task they have been assigned in class. This function also allows users to collect records that may be necessary and then filter them out later.

Successful Outcome

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On 13 October 2005, the beta version of the Vrroom website was launched to the world by Senator the Hon Rod Kemp, Minister for the Arts and Sport. In his opening speech, Senator Kemp commented that the site would reach thousands of students fulfilling one of the National Archives’ core objectives of making its collection known and accessible to the public. Since its launch, NAA have received interest and feedback from teachers and students across Australia, which will eventually be incorporated into the next version of the website.

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