Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council Website Build
Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council approached WJPS mid 2022, after some concerns arose that their old site did not comply with accessibility guidelines, and was hard to both navigate and update. Their site was well populated and often used and updated, but it seemed the more that was done on the site, the more difficult it got to use. Their old site was designed on Weebly, and like many other Councils, had run into many issues using software that is not purposefully designed for Local Council use.
The Brief
Their old site had been in use for some years, and was well established. Over the time they had been using their previous site, people from all parts of the parish had contributed to their site, including pages about their Recreation Area, Garden Club, and detailed information about their War Memorial.
The Parish Council wanted to continue to use the site for both Council Information and groups within the parish like their WI and Oil Club. They also wanted to carry on using parts of the site as a directory to attractions in the parish including Where to Eat, Accommodation and Local Businesses.
The Build
Firstly, we set the pages and their order, and created a 'skeleton' site. Once we had a basic outline of pages, we began moving the content from the old site to the new one. Often when moving a site away from Weebly or Wix, we need to change the content and format to be sure the pages comply with accessibility guidelines. This included adding Alt-Text, re-formatting documents to be in a more accessible format like PDFs, and using the correct formatting for a screen reader.
Whilst building the site, we realised that WCS users would benefit from having a second option for how Gallieries are displayed on a page. We created and implemented a new display style called "grid", which will display like an instagram feed (See our article on our new Galleries display style.) After making and releasing the new feature, we began implementing it on many of the sites pages.
It is important, especially for Councils, to have an organised and easy to navigate document management system. Our software, WCS, has a built in document management system that works like a digital filing cabinet. During this site build we created a system that was easy to understand and add too, and displayed the folders on pages, so any documents uploaded automatically show on the pages the files are displayed on.
The Training
Once we had finished the content transfer and set up of the Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council site, we visited the council at their Village Hall to to go over the completed site. This opens up discussion about what the Council like, dislike, and are unsure of when it comes to the site. After this meeting, we made a couple of tweaks to the site to maximise usability, and proceeded to invite the members of the Council who would be most active on the site to the office for a training session.
In preparation for this training session, we created a pack of personalised crib sheets to help the members of the council get to grips with their site.
3 Months Later
On the 1st September 2022, Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council launched their site. Since then, they have utilised may fantastic WCS features to work for them.
They have begun using the News Update Sign Up feature, allowing residents to sign up to receive a notification when a news story is added to the site. They also use the events system, giving residents a clear view of any upcoming events taking place in the parish.
We have maintained steady communication with the Council for any ongoing training and support needs.
Conclusion
We have really enjoyed working with Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council on this project. We are very proud of the site build and hope that the council and residents enjoy their new site.
"From our first contact with the company their response was swift and extremely helpful. We were asked for our brief in the building of our website and received a clear description of what to expect.
Our website content was subsequently transferred smoothly with a number of changes carried out to bring it up to date. In-person training was made available for the Councillors and the Parish Clerk, and we were reassured that any queries would be swiftly dealt with. Some written documents (crib sheets) were offered to help content editors learn how to add information to their pages.
The new website is attractive and easy to navigate and the Parish Council has received many compliments about it.
We feel confident, that in engaging the services of WJPS, we have done all that we can to comply with the government's accessibility legislation."
- Ingleby Arncliffe Parish Council.
Published: 20/12/2022 Published by: WJPS
Return to News Page.