NASA NDT is a training facility specialising in courses for the Non-destructive testing (NDT) industry. I’ll interrupt here to explain (I had to learn this too): Non-destructive testing is a method of inspecting materials and systems without causing damage. It helps detect flaws and defects in a variety of industries, enhancing safety and reliability. Non-destructive testing is crucial to all industrial manufacturing and maintenance in particular, from pipelines to railroads, aviation, mining, electricity and water suppliers, roads agencies, you name it, anywhere there is metal and weldings / castings / forgings involved, NDT needs to be done to make sure manufacturing and safety codes are adhered to.
So, the fabulous folk at NASA NDT needed a presence on the internet, as they had no website at all. They needed means to advertise their courses, fees and dates – and had to create a platform to eventually facilitate online applications and training. It was important for them to have an attractive, but functional, website. They recently split from their parent company and needed to have a place where new clients and previous clients could contact them, read up, keep in touch and just be aware of them – an online spot to keep up with all the things going on at their training facility.
One of their chief challenges related to breaking away from their parent company was that they needed to clearly differentiate themselves as a separate company based at a different geographical location, to establish that they are an entity totally on their own. That meant a different online look and feel. Another challenge was a time-sensitive one: they needed to get their Black Friday specials up and out there in order to compete with the other NDT training centres.
The other big challenge was a time constraint – which was more on my side than theirs. NASA NDT needed to get the website up in time to advertise their Black Friday specials in order to compete with the other NDT training centres. I had two weeks to design, execute and test. TWO WEEKS. It normally takes around a month to set up a site like this. I had to double-time it!
Their target audience? Non-destructive testing (NDT) companies, NDT Technicians, industrial companies who do their own NDT – anybody in the field who would require training in NDT (designing a website without considering the target audience is like wearing a tuxedo to a pool party – it’s just not going to work! It’s important to know who you’re designing for so you can create a website that meets their needs and preferences.) There are four large NDT training centres in South Africa, NASA NDT is now the fifth and although they are very new the industry had already felt their presence. During 2022 they presented 25 Courses and trained 161 technicians. In 2022 they presented courses in 9 different methods of doing NDT. They are constantly working to train staff in adding methods so we can train in more methods, with the best equipment and training facility. Their audience needed to know this about them.
I set about reviewing their branding and proposed web content and overall aim for their website. I’m often asked how I design a website and I never use the same creative process twice, honestly. But I do have some general design principles I run on. Here’s how I applied them for this project:
- Colour palette and font: I first reviewed their logo and branding and decided out of that what would work well for high contrast, optimal legibility (especially for smartphones) but also company personality.
- Layout: Next, we had to make a snap decision on a layout because of our deadline. Sometimes I review the material for a project and then grab a pencil and some graph paper and draw a layout by hand (weird, I know, but digital design isn’t tactile and sometimes using a pencil helps me get better ideas). Here we opted for a predesigned layout, however. It sped up the process, plus circumvented a lot of design questions and conversations.
- Special features: We added a direct messaging function for mobile to make contacting the sales office easier. We also found a way to link up their Google Calendar with course dates directly to the site – very useful for website users.
How did the website add value to NASA NDT? I’ll let Joy Barnard from NASA NDT explain:
What impact did the design make on your business, users, or stakeholders?
When compared to the other websites of the other schools we find ours user friendly, informative, easy to read and navigate and constantly updated if there are changes. It also looks pretty!
Did you get any user feedback about the site?
Our students commented that they liked it – it was nice and easy to navigate. A lot of them said we don’t have to send them the application forms as they already downloaded it from the website.
Why would you recommend Anzelle.com to other companies?
Anzelle was hands-on, quick to respond, easy to contact, honest in her feedback and she had wonderful ideas we did not think of. She made sure she knew what we wanted so there were not a lot of changes that needed to be done once the website was ready to go live. She bent over backwards to get everything done in a very short time, she also made everything seem possible, so we feel we can easily make additions or changes to our website as time comes to expand our business and target audience. She is knowledgeable and does not take shortcuts, which gives a lot of peace of mind related to the safety and safe use of our website.
Visit the NASA NDT website: