Development of pages for the Friends/PC website
This page is a start of a discussion on what the format and content of the Friends/Parish Council website should have.
The page will be accessible on-line and linked from the "Friends" page on the Parish Council website. The page is hosted on my main site and the link to here is on the "Information on the Church" page.
Points for discussion
These are the notes tht I feel need to be discussed and resolutions made. I will have sections on this page for each point.
- Page design and layout - Colours, menu options, navigation etc
- The development of on-line store - when we have mechandise to sell!
- The integration of Social Media - this is NOT the same as what platform is to be used for an online store.
- Promotion of events - this should be combined with fliers and Social Media
Page Design and layout
I am using the same page layout that I developed for the Parish Council website.
As the development of websites is one of my hobbies it is my desire to learn and experiment with new techniques. Colours and layouts may not be consistant and I encourage feedback on these design elements. I code these pages from scratch and I am not really interested in using a website "building" tool.
The "Friends" website is designed to be accessed from a mobile device and should be fully navigable on such a device. However, the pages are better viewed on a computer or tablet screen. I encourage those reviewing the site to use a computer to view the content. I am more than happy to show those that are interested how to view the pages in varying screen resolutions.
It is very likely that spelling errors and typos will occur on these pages. Broken links may also be present. They need to be reported to the webmaster. These minor changes can be made as soon as they are pointed out. Major changes relating to content and overall strategy will require consensus for changes to be uploaded.
As I am using the same template for the Parish Council and the "Friends" pages it is now of vital importance that these make sense as a visitor may not realise what they are looking at.
For example, the page with information on the church has a mobile menu that says ""Information on the Church" and a page header of "The Church of St. Mary's St.Mary's Belchamp Walter". While this may sound trivial I beieve that it is key to a good web degign. You cannot do this easiy with Wordpress or other Content Management Systems.
Feedback on this subject is needed.
You may have noted all the pastel shades - this just me playing around.
The development of on-line store
The development of the Parish Council is a hobby for the webaster and there is no interest in learning the use and development interface for a commercial eCommerce platform such as Shopify. Should this be determined as a requirement a developer needs to be found to perform this task.
The maintenance of the Village Hall website is performed as a courtesy to the Village Hall and the committee member that was not able to continue with this support.
An eCommerce plug-in can be added to the Village Hall Wordpress site but the webmaster of the Parish Council is not really interested in pursuing this. This is supposedly a free solution.
The webmaster is prepared to develop our own eCommerce functionality that is deemed appropriate form the "Friends" operation and goals. This is an important point of discussion for the group.
The "Friends" main page has the beginning of an on-line store but until it is decided what we want to offer for sale and how we want purchasers to pay for the merchandise I will not proceed too far with this functionality.
Event Planning
Details about up-coming events will be posted on the "Friends" website in addition to the traditional methods such as the Parish Magazine, fliers and Social Media posts
I suggest a seperate page for each event. This page can contain as much information as required, times - dates and booking info. The upcoming event will be also referenced on the main page and an archive of past events is also possible with photos of the day.
Booking and payment for events can be as simple or complex as we see fit at the time. Initially this would mean that an eCommerce solution is not need until the group has been running for a while and we know what we are doing.
Google Analytics
The Parish Counil website uses Google Analytics to monitor user visits to the site.
When the websites are up and running Analytics can be used to fine-tune the performance of the site. This analysis is normally only availble and performed on "professional" websites and it comes at a cost.
SEO
In addition to the analysis using Google Analytics Search Engine Optimisation techniques are also used by tempusfugit.me.uk
These methods include the use of Google Search Console which is used to determine the effectivemess of page content and
the position of those pages in Internet Search Results.
Don't Forget to Refresh your Browser
Pages can be uploaded at any I am connected to the Internet. As I said above, minor changes can be made as soon as I am made aware, however, these changes may not be seen until the page has been refreshed.
Please let me know if a change is not appearing.
Top of page - I am not sure if I really need this as the emphasis is for a mobile touch screen rendering, the user will scroll to the top using touch.
Links - please disregard most of these if you are a "Friend"
The integration of Social Media
Links to Social media sites can be added to the Parish Council and Friends website when they have been created by the "creative" members of the Friends group. The webmaster of the Parish Council and the current Friends pages does not use or access Social Media.
Links to Social Media can be made using a text link or an icon, or both. Examples of this can be found on the "Friends" main page and on this page.
- Facebook (this does nothing if clicked - example only)
Links can be placed to ANY Social Media platform and even a "Live Feed" to your own profile if you are logged in to your account. Do not be confused that others may see your pages if you click on such a link as others will see THEIR pages when they click such links. We may decide not to have this funtionality as it may only create undue concerns from users.