I am very pleased to announce that the ArabicOnline website has been updated.
The previous site was becoming somewhat clunky and although it could have survived another year, we felt it was important to start refining the ArabicOnline identity and improving the services.
Redeveloping the site was quite a multifaceted affair.
We began by exploring the colours and focussing on the warm orange which will from now on be the main identity of ArabicOnline – as you can hopefully gather from the site by now. Over the past few months, the logo has been simplified to two aspects: the calligraphy on an orange circle plus the Arabic Online text in a clearer font. Previously the font was ‘Arabised’ and the calligraphy was multicoloured.
From that starting point we gave each of the products a different colour / identity.
First Steps
Our “Entry Level Arabic” was renamed “First Steps Arabic” to keep the consistency with the other Pendragon products in other languages. The colour is a lighter sandy colour.
This course of Arabic for absolute beginners has been updated and is now available with only transliteration. It was felt that this was more appropriate for absolute beginners, i.e. those with no previous knowledge of Arabic. Those, however, wishing to take Arabic further can begin with the Complete Beginner’s to Intermediate Course which has Arabic script.
First Steps in Arabic has also been updated to the newest interface which supports more exercises and inbuilt multi-lingualism which means learners can switch the language of instruction from within the interface. First Steps in Arabic remains completely free and we have continued with our policy of no advertisements whatsoever. We feel this is important for learners.
Complete Arabic
The main course has been named Complete Arabic. This is mainly to make it slightly easier to understand for those deciding which product to opt for. The course is for beginners to intermediate level. This keeps the main ArabicOnline orange colour.
At the moment this product has not been changed or modified too much however this will receive the next batch of work. The “My Profile” page for this product is however a lot cleaner and easy to navigate.
Advanced Arabic
We have also finally added the Advanced Arabic course. Although this was completed quite a while ago, we felt it was important to update the site before offering this product. Advanced Arabic receives a burnt orange colour again showing the progression from light sand to deep orange.
This course is also very comprehensive and ideal for those who have either completed our Beginner’s to Intermediate course or have taken at least two years of Arabic in formal education.
Design
We say a big thank you to Mark Healey who was responsible for refining and distilling the identity and polishing the site to what it is now. Mark also refined the user journey and the user experience to make the site easier to navigate and ensure it was quicker to get to where you want to go.
We will continue to work with Mark on the upcoming project for the British Council.
Technical nitty gritty
A lot of work recently was ‘under the hood’ and mainly completed by Jeroen Lichtenauer – so a big thank you to him. This basically refers to the programming code which has been improved everywhere even if you are unable to notice it when browsing the site. Big improvements have been developed in the user login and the payment systems. These are now much better and optimised for mobiles as well as multi-lingualism.
Round up
Carl Taylor also deserves a big thank you as his clear thinking and linguistic supremeness was responsible for many of the texts that you read on the page. Although redeveloping the site sounds relatively straight forward, it is in fact a very time consuming but constructive process because it integrates so many features: design, business strategy, pricing, communication, identity, audience, search engine optimisation, programming code and so much more.
What’s next?
We are continuing the translate ArabicOnline into German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
We are also updating the apps, working together with the British Council and taking the Complete Arabic interface to the new interface. It doesn’t sound like much – but it is!
For those of you who managed to read this far, you are rewarded with a special offer of 15% on the Complete Arabic course with the following discount coupon code: update. Valid till 08/08/16!
The header image is a picture I took from a recent trip to Morocco. First person to guess where this is receives a small gift.
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Neal Taylor, Torquay
Thank you for visiting ArabicOnline.Eu. Our award winning interactive courses of Modern Standard Arabic have been developed for anyone with a genuine interest in Arabic, whether for private, educational or professional reasons and are specially designed for self-study. Our website and our language courses are free from advertisements and we don't share any personal details of our visitors or registered members with third parties. Nor do we sell data for targeted advertising. We believe passionately that learning should be free from commercial distractions. For this reason we rely on subscriptions to fund the development of our products. Click here to find out more about our Beginner to Intermediate Arabic courses.
Casablanca, of course :).
Well done, Ella. You’re absolutely right. I took this picture in the Mahakma du Pasha in Casablanca. I’ll be in touch with you shortly!