New Website Style
As you can no doubt see, the Mansfield Group website has had a radical makeover. Hopefully you like the new look but if you have any suggestions on how it can be improved then feel free to let me know.
There are several reasons for this change.
Also
For now, I've simply re-used much of the content that was on the old site, but that was just to get the new site up and running quickly (or less slowly if you like). But now that it's easy to add new pages I'm keen to hear suggestions of other things that we might add to the website. Some of the further changes that are already planned are:-
As you can no doubt see, the Mansfield Group website has had a radical makeover. Hopefully you like the new look but if you have any suggestions on how it can be improved then feel free to let me know.
There are several reasons for this change.
- Firstly, the old look was looking rather dated; It was borrowed from the style of the old IAM HQ which at the time had seemed like a good idea - it wasn't ;)
- Secondly, this new style uses a personal CMS or Content Management System. This makes it much easier to update existing pages and to add new content to the system. I've put some time into looking for a much more effective way of maintaining the site so that it can be very easily updated to provide our users with relevant, timely, and accurate information. Thanks to the CMS (which if you're interested is called RapidWeaver, though of course I know your not) the style of the site is separated from the actual content which means that style and content changes can be achieved much more effectively.
Also
- RapidWeaver also has some great plugins available to add extra functionality. This will enable us to have the Poll on the website together with other content which will hopefully be of interest to both current and new members.
- RapidWeaver also offers great support for mobile devices. Now that many people access the Web on the phones and other small devices, it's quite important to have a site that changes its behaviour to suit the device being used. Have a look at the site on your phone if it has a browser and hopefully you'll see that it has a style more suited to the device that you're using - for example, the sidebar disappears and is accessed by a separate menu option. If that doesn't happen on your device, then please let me know. It certainly works on the Apple IPad, IPod and IPhone, and on my Android phone, or did when I tested it, but obviously I cant test all of the possible options that people might use.
For now, I've simply re-used much of the content that was on the old site, but that was just to get the new site up and running quickly (or less slowly if you like). But now that it's easy to add new pages I'm keen to hear suggestions of other things that we might add to the website. Some of the further changes that are already planned are:-
- Remove - or perhaps replace - the landscape picture that appears on every page. I think a good picture enhances the look of the site, but the one that's currently there isn't appropriate.
- Add more pictures amongst the text.
- Improve the quality of the IAM logo at the top of the screen.
- Add more content - a start on this will be useful information from the IAM press releases, but home generated content that is particularly relevant to our users would be most welcome.
- Add more information in the Sidebar - that's the much less than fully utilised area to the right of most of the pages.
- The survey - together with information on the findings to date.
- A blog?
- A forum?
- Advertising?
- What else would you change?