When taking over as Chair in the Spring of 2025, Ian Panton spoke with the incoming Web Manager, David Chapman, about the focus of this website and how information is presented.
Ian wanted the home page first to offer a welcome to non-members of S&G U3A, and then an easy route to finding out about our many different groups. This is often the approach on other U3A websites. He also wanted to reduce the number of clicks needed to find things.
It must still be easy for our members to see important notices about what's happening when they visit the site and find information about groups of which they are members. Hence, there is the small Headline panel at the top of the page, and a note saying to scroll down to see notices and events. That note can be clicked to scroll there directly - there is no wait for another page to load.
- Notices and events are separated into S&G U3A events and individual Activity Group events. The latter is the notice board where a group leader can tell those who are not members of their group things that may interest them.
- At the top of the home page are navigation buttons to the most important pages of the site. These are intended to stand out more than the yellow navigation bar they replace. Lower priority pages are available under the More drop-down menu. These buttons are now on all pages.
- The page that lists all groups has been changed completely. The key information about each group is now presented in a table with a clickable link to the info page of each group, and a link to contact the leader. The table can be searched with a no-click instant-response search for any text in the table, for example the meeting day or group subject.
- Members of a group need to know when it next meets. Group meetings are now shown in a Google Calendar on the Groups Schedule page - just click that button at the top of any page. It shows the next 10 days of group meetings, with other dates accessible with the date controls on the calendar. Clicking on a meeting displays basic details including the location and a link to the group's web page. Also, that page, the Groups List and the home About Us page now also show the current week number for fortnightly groups.
- Finally, the colour scheme has been changed. Background colours are now all different shades of pale blue rather than assorted varieties of blue, pink, green and orange. This is obviously matter of taste: is it a move from eye-catching to boring, or easier on the eye and more consistent? Let us know.
Your views about the changes, positive or negative, would be appreciated.
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Thank you.