Feedback on the new website

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Author	Message
forummoderator 13 January 2009, 11:15am	Do you have any feedback on the new website? Is there anything that isn't working as well as it should? Are there any new features that you are finding useful? Does the new design work for you?
forummoderator 09 February 2009, 2:49pm	Now that the website is live, we have a number of methods to provide feedback. 1) If you want to share your comments publicly, you can use the forum, and this thread (need to Register on the website first). 2) You can also submit feedback via our feedback spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pMJ2Et1283d0k28XNEAqtYg 3) Or contact us directly: http://www.urc.org.uk/contact_us/contact_us
Melanie Frew 09 February 2009, 8:15pm	I am interested to find out if people with a visual impairment can read easily the white text on the pale-coloured background panels? I am a little concerned that the lack of strong contrast may cause some difficulties.
revbb 10 February 2009, 10:41am	I really like the new boxed format which makes it easy to get round the site. I come onto the site regularly for news. I now look forward to seeing what kind of events are posted up on the website, so we can all get involved. Two small concerns: I am not sure the pictorial banner at the top of the new website really reflects who we are. Also as a person with dyslexia, there is left handed menu of past news which is a little too crowded for me. Otherwise, I think it looks great. Thank you for your hard work.
heAwkwardSquad 10 February 2009, 1:09pm	The design is fairly good. I'm a little disappointed by the slowness of the site to access various pages. Also the graphic at the top of the front page is incredibly cheesy and I would have thought we could have done a bit better than that!!! It doesn't say much about the URC to me, although it does remind me of a couple of retirement house builder's websites... Anyway, yep much better in general and long, long overdue. (Please excuse the user name, don't know where the 'T' went and I didn't choose it just to be difficult here!)
mansemob 10 February 2009, 1:46pm	Overall the site is much easier on the eye and brighter but I can understand Melanie Frew's concern about the lack of strong contrast. Was advice taken and partially sighted folk consulted? The change was long overdue: well done all concerned! However, I agree with "The awkward Squad" about the front page top banner: it is a bit cheesey! I am hoping that I have missed hyperlink to a "links" page that would take me to the wonders of URC associated centres and organisatiions as well as to other Christian groups and denominations, eg, Houghton, Windermere, URC Guide & Scout Fellowship, Holiday Forum, Christian Aid, TEAR Fund, let alone Synods. Have I missed something or is it lacking and, if the latter, will it be restored? Is the omission of congregational website addresses from the local church pages a deliberate decision or will they reappear some time in the future? I understand that it must be a nightmare to keep them up to date but I believe their presence is very useful to folk looking for information about our churches and too useful to lose. I hope these comments coem over as intended, i.e. constructive criticism on a job well done and much appreciated. Thanks again.
MattStone 11 February 2009, 8:24am	The new site looks good (although I do agree with the "cheesiness" of the front page picture)! However, there doesn't seem to be very much on the site about what we, in the Reformed tradition, believe. Also, whilst the link to the re:jesus site is good, could we have more about Jesus on our own pages? There is not even a mention of Jesus on the "About Us" page. We talk about ecumenism, but not our Saviour...
Jonblue 11 February 2009, 9:10am	Yes I agree, the 'Title' picture looks like something out of Saga magazine but easily rectified I should imagine to something more imaginative which will present a far more dynamic image of our ssdly dramatically declining membership.We need to PUSH the image of the URC and all we stand for as our church I suspect, is unknown by over 90% of the population. Otherwise,a good start particularly this forum in exchanging views easily as opposed to going through Reform where news can quickly become outdates by the time it is published.
pkstokes 11 February 2009, 9:26am	Please can we have some paragraph breaks in these posts? Here, I will put a space after the 'X' character at the end of this line, and then start a new paragraph with a blank line before it. X But guess what - the whole lot is run together as a single paragraph. And then, if I enter a small series of bullet points:- (1) Line one (2) Line two (3) Line three ...these should have been on separate lines... but they are not. It really would help with visual clarity for people who want to highlight a few points. Obviously a job for the webmaster (or webbod, if we must be gender non-specific).
Jonblue 11 February 2009, 5:17pm	I guess it's not possible to include photos on the Forum other than via another website link? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words!
forummoderator 11 February 2009, 5:31pm	Thanks to everyone for all the feedback we've had. Melanie Frew - White text on pale backgrounds. During implementation we tweaked the backgrounds to be darker because we were concerned about the readability of text. We may look at this again in the future. revbb and others - Pictorial front page banner As you can imagine, it's very difficult to please everyone. The images are designed to be inviting to the wider public, and to emphasise the inclusive nature of the church. revbb - Crowded left-hand menu of past news The News tab provides an easier way to browse the News. We may look to reorganising our stories as they grow in number to improve the usability of the left-hand navigation. TheAwkwardSquad - slowness of the site Looking at our initial data on download times, the new site is slightly faster than the old site. However, certain pages now contain more data and may take longer to download if you are on a restricted connection. For example, the front page contains 50% more data due to our wider format. If you see issues with particular pages, let us know. mansemob - "links" page Links to Synods are available from the Synod contact pages. Some sections of the new site are barer than others and are still being worked upon. MattStone - "about what we, in the Reformed tradition, believe" The website will continue to grow as more and more people add to it. pkstokes - Formatting of posts You can see from item 2 in this thread (the post on the methods of providing feedback) that we've also seen difficulties with formatting posts in the forum. We are looking at whether we can fix the issue easily or whether it needs more work.
Phil Baiden 12 February 2009, 8:59am	MattStone - "about what we, in the Reformed tradition, believe" The website will continue to grow as more and more people add to it. What does this mean?
MattStone 12 February 2009, 10:16am	And will we get more on Jesus? I notice that this part of my comment has been ignored. Part of the URC's communication remit must - surely - be about presenting the good news of the Gospel credibly, clearly and joyfully, as well as presenting what we are doing in response to the good news as a church. Perhaps we need a "What we believe" tab, with reference to the Basis of Union, the ecumenical creeds, the Reformed tradition and the Bible?
Esther 12 February 2009, 10:54am	Overall I think there is much to be positive about the new website. I agree with the comments above that the left menu is too crowded on some pages and when browsing from the left menu there is little facility to navigate back so you are forced to move to the browser back button or top menu. I know cross browser issues are a pain but the left menu on the NEWS page is right down at the bottom for me on IE7 and the same page in Opera is very scrambled. There are a few examples where I think the font is too large (or the content width could be changed) causing 'orphaned' words which looks untidy and means more scrolling - 2 examples: http://www.urc.org.uk/what_we_do/mission/mission_team http://www.urc.org.uk/what_we_do/rjmm/news_updates_events I know it takes time to get things right - I hope this is helpful
Tim 12 February 2009, 10:49pm	Is there a way to see your member profile / make changes to your profile?
Tim 12 February 2009, 11:01pm	Also, Is there a way to edit your posts / could this be implemented? (Would have saved me having to double post!) And a 'bug' - when you navigate away from the forums page it looks as if you have logged out.
MillieTagged 14 February 2009, 3:28pm	First impression - its very well structured, congratulations! It looks more user friendly and makes me envious, though our website is pretty good, but not up to this standard. More comment later when I have navigated around the differemt screens and drilled down into the depths of the URC!
fleur houston 16 February 2009, 12:59pm	bit worried about pushing the image of the URC and all that we stand for. What about doing our best to push the gospel which we proclaim?
Jonblue 16 February 2009, 9:29pm	bit worried about pushing the image of the URC and all that we stand for. What about doing our best to push the gospel which we proclaim? Yes I agree but surely it's the same thing? Our form of service is simple and is it's strength compared to the mumbo jumbo in some other denominations and my guess is would appeal to many people but the vast majoritythey have probably never heard of us as the URC is rarely quoted in the media. I doubt our message of the Gospel is reaching the masses despite tremendous work by some churches hence the sad stampede towards extinction in perhaps a decade at best? This website may act as a clarion call and stimulate our leaders to tackle this problem.
Tim 18 February 2009, 7:00pm	Something else, when clicking on the "Events", "Find a church" or "Forums" tab at the top of the page, the "Home" tab is higlighted (goes dark) rather than the actual page you are looking at. This doesn't happen with the other tabs.

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