With an increasing level of enthusiasm for the Society following the public meeting of April 26th, we’ve been looking at sharpening up our communications.
First in line is the website, the old version of which had served well for a few years but has recently been showing its age. For this refresh, we’ve stuck with the basic free WordPress.com service but have redesigned the site from the top down. (Maybe that should read ‘from the bottom up’ since we’ve imported all the content from the previous site in order that nothing has been lost.)
Here are a few things to look out for:
Page format
Most pages now include a ‘sidebar’, which appears either on the right hand side of the page, or down below the main page content if you’re looking on a device with a small screen, your phone or a tablet. Within the sidebar, you’ll find secondary menus, links to recent updates, a free text search box and a drop down box which enables you to select items from the archives.
Page footer
If you scroll down to the foot of each page, you’ll find, along with our ‘Mission Statement’, two further options for searching the site. The ‘Cloud menu’ and the selection of ‘Tags’ give you two alternative ways of searching the site. Try them out and see whether you find them useful.
Links
Text links which are clickable are marked in a different colour italic font, underlined to highlight the link. Click on any of these and the referenced content should open in another browser tab, or in the case of the example in the first sentence of this post, your email program should be opened with the correct address and subject pre-set.
Menu
The main menu runs along the top of the site pages, with downward arrows indicating where second level menu items exist. On secondary level pages, a sub-menu appears at the top of the sidebar where present.
Take the main menu options at the top of the page to find topics of interest, from news on local planning matters to information about arts and leisure activities around the town. Resources available also include copies of HCS newsletters and links to local services and peer organisations.
Earlier site content
Content from the earlier version of the website can be found by using the free text ‘Search’ box or by taking the ‘Archived posts’ drop down menu.
While the structure of the site is still under review, we think it represents a step forward from the previous web presence. We know it’s not perfect though so would welcome your ideas on how it could be improved. Whatever your feelings, feel free to let us know either way.
Havant Civic Society 