Group website re-launch

by Paul Sweeney

The new Home page as it looks on my phone. Click on the image to view full size.

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Like most things in life, websites need a refresh from time to time and we decided it was time to update our group website. The new-look Home page is designed to work better on Smartphones and Tablets as we have become aware that increasingly members are using mobile devices rather than desktop computers to browse the site.

The original design was meant primarily for desktop use with a mouse, so things needed to change to make it a better experience for mobile users. Additionally, keeping the Home page updated with news, blogs etc had become a chore as the process for doing that was entirely manual and labour-intensive.

So with the above in mind, what started out with the intention of a minor tweak became a much larger piece of redesign work. Just like repairing a single fault on a classic car, once you start fixing one thing you inevitably start noticing more "areas for improvement" and thinking, "I might as well  sort that out too while I'm here".

I was looking for ways to display news and blogs in a more modern, attractive and mobile-friendly way - and to have them appear on the Home page automatically as if by magic when published, instead of continuing the time-consuming and fiddly task of adding each one individually (when I remembered to do it). Success! I found an app that does exactly what I wanted and set to using it.

​And so the half hour job took most of a weekend in the end - but hopefully you will think it was worthwhile and better still if numbers of you start visiting the site more regularly.

Some screenshots from the mobile site are shown on this page.

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