Site Map
Content
The Lean Enterprise Academy website is divided into two main sections:
- General ( Home, About Us, Contact Us, Join Us, Search and Site Map )
- Features (Workshops, Products, Articles and Healthcare)
General Topics
The general topics are accessed via the menu at the top-right corner of each page, or at the bottom of the left side panel on each page.
- Home ( Welcome / Breaking News / Initiatives )
- About Us ( The Lean UK Team, Lean Faculty, Lean Global Network )
- Contact Us ( Address, Directions, Map )
- Join Us ( Lean Community Registration Form )
- Search ( Search options )
- Site Map ( This page )
Features
The features are available via the main menu at the top-centre of each page.
- Workshops ( Forthcoming Workshops, Lean Pathway )
- Products ( Books, Workbooks, Kits, Training Tools )
- Site Map ( Dan's and Jim's e-letters, Articles, Presentations, Speeches )
- Summits ( Forthcoming summits, Previous reports )
- Healthcare ( Healthcare forums, news, articles, presentations )
How to use the site
Navigation and Page Layout
The navigation system is always shown at the top of each page and consists of two levels:
- The top menu provides navigation to the main topics - Workshops, Products, etc. (where each topic has its own colour identity).
- The second level menu provides navigation to the section headings within the current page.
To help identify where you within the site, each page has a coloured bar across the top of the page in the colour relating to the current topic.
Each page has a short summary or highlights in the coloured panel to the left. This is often helpful to lead you to New! or updated sections within the topic.
Browser Support
The web pages are written to the latest W3C standards (see below) and we have endeavoured not to use any features that are not available in all the current browsers. So effectively we are using a subset of the full features of HTML and CSS. This includes the use of colours that are 'safe' on all browsers on all platforms.
We do not down-load cookies or Java applets on to your computer and use minimal client-side Javascript for validation and menu 'previews'.
The web site is tested with the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer Version 5.0 (or later)
- Netscape Version 6.0 (or later
- Mozilla Version 1.7 (or later)
- Opera Version 5.0 (or later)
- Safari Version 1.0 (or later)
If you are using an earlier version of these browsers you can download a free upgrade from the respective site. Please email the author (see below) if you are having any problems.
W3C Standards - XHTML and CSS
We have tried to create a web site that works on all recent browsers and on all platforms.
This site has been developed using XHTML 1.0 (Strict) and validates in accordance with the W3.org validation service.
We have used Cascading style sheets to create the page layouts and visual effects. Tables are used only where appropriate!
If any features of the web site do not appear to display correctly on your browser we want to know. Please contact the web author (see below) if you have any comments about the site.
Adobe Acrobat and PDF Files
All articles and presentations are stored using Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 6 (or later) to read these files. The latest version of Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.
In line with W3C guidelines PDF files are shown on the same web page so use the Back button (Rather than Close) to return to the previous page.
Technical Information
XHTML and CSS Development Tools
The site has been developed using TopStyle from Bradbury Software. This is an excellent product for hands-on web page and Cascading Style Sheet development. It checks the XHTML against a number of different browsers and provides a seamless link the W3C validation service. For more information visit www.bradsoft.com.
Web Application Development Tools
After some soul searching and looking at the many different options, the web application has been developed using Microsoft .NET Visual Studio. Hmmm. Good news and bad news. It is nice to be able to create and debug program code in a sophisticated development environment, but .NET Version 1 only supports HTML 4.0, it often 'gets in the way, and always feels like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. However, it all seems to be working OK, so all's well that ends well...
Secure Trading Payment System
We have chosen Secure Trading to host our secure credit card payment service. They provide a very friendly service, with excellent documentation and a robust and well proven product. For more information contact www.securetrading.com.
About the Author
Stephen Lewis is an independent IT developer with over 20 years experience of database application design, development and support.
This is my first e-commerce site and the aim has been to create a site that, foremost, is easy to use. The navigation system and page layout has evolved with the aim of providing a simple and consistent interface. Fancy features have been discarded in preference to browser compatibility and simplicity in keeping with the Lean Enterprise Academy goals.
I hope you like the site and would be please to answer any questions if you email me at stephen@fordingsbarn.co.uk