I have turned comments on without moderation during the review. If you have some general ideas and want a public discussion on them please leave them as a comment to this post.
As many of you know the WPMC website is currently undergoing a redesign. The rough plan is a 4 step process:
- Specification of goals, evaluation of technology, etc
- Website design, major navigation design, implementation
- Fix all the small issues, rename pages, fix typos, final reorder navigation etc, testing and documentation
- Go live!
We have come to a agreement on step one and chosen the WordPress system to manage the site. We are now half way through step 2 and much of the information from the original site has been moved over to the WordPress version but there are still some features that are missing.
We will be running both versions of the website while we receive feedback on the ease of use, preference and design.
The current website that we have been using for several years and isno longer available.
The WordPress version is: www.wpamushroomclub.org/ you might want to bookmark this site for easy reference.
The layout and design that you see on the WordPress site is not the final design. We plan to beautify it, improve the layout and add more images but it is a good working example.
We currently need your help in reviewing what is there, defining new features and making suggestions.
We need to decide on what new features that we want the website to have.
Do we wish to keep all the old features?
Current features:
Event listing (Calendar, Meetings, Walks, Forays, classes and directions to locations)
Photo Galleries
Species list generator
First page of the Newsletter
Mushroom stuff page
Handouts
Button program
Links to news articles
About the club (joining, by laws, NAMA, other chapters)
Links to other mushroom sites
Contact info
Some potential new features include:
Articles/blog posts
Interactive quizzes
Store/shop
DNA Barcoding sample sheet
Social media sharing links
RSS – for use with Google reader replacement
Mobile device support – iPhone/Pad/Android/Win8 phone/Blackberry
Windows 8 tile support
Your idea here
We also need to know if you would like to change the order of the menus, wish to add or remove menu options or move a page to a different menu. Should the menus be at the top of the page or one of the sides?
Do you like the side bar ?
Should we keep the current colors, use the same colors as the newsletter or use a different color scheme?
You can also report any typos, spelling mistakes and old links etc that you find but that is not too important at this stage.
Even a “Like it” or “Don’t like it” can be helpful but we would prefer a little more feedback – “I don’t like x because y”.
Your time spent reviewing the website will be gratefully appreciated and we will consider all your suggestions and will try to go with the consensus where possible.
Please forward all comments to Richard Jacob and me [email protected].
Mary Jo writes:
The /WP won’t be needed once the change over is complete. It is just there so we can keep the two sites separated for now.
Mary Jo writes:
The new site allows us to name pages. If you want to point someone to the join page you can use this URL: http://wpamushroomclub.org/wp/about/join/
In the future the WP won’t be needed either. Some of the page names currently have longer names but can easily be customized.
Mary Jo writes:
We might want to look into buying http://wpmushroomclub.org and others, just so they do not get picked up by other people. We can then redirect from those sites to the main one. However buying a site name is actually closer to renting it and we would have to pay every year or so. If the cost is reasonable it is something we should look at.
Mary Jo writes:
One thing we have not yet brought over to the new site is the customized Species list Checklist pages:
http://wpamushroomclub.org/wp/species_list.html
and
http://wpamushroomclub.org/wp/files/lists/mushform.html
I am thinking of revamping them but have not yet decided how.
I agree with Mary Jo that we should have printable files: Button ID form, Participant Form for walks, mushroom ID forms (like the little pads, but with 8/10 on a sheet), etc.
Can we add a tutorial on identifying features (someday)?
I like the new layout, with the ability to post to social media.
PDF’s of the common forms are easy to add. Some forms we may want to keep private for walk leaders like the Participant Form for walks, mushroom ID forms but we should still be able to make easily accessible.
Good idea to create a tutorial to help beginners know what to look for when identifying a mushroom. It would take some work/time to either draw original pictures of what to look for or take pictures collect illustrate all the different but it is easy to add as a page to the site.
This wordpress site is massively more functional than the old one. Consolidating all “events” of every kind into the same space, including monthly meetings, is very much appreciated. (I’ll never use the “categories” page as long as every event ends up in the top-level searchable calendar.) Spellcheck: On the “About Events” page, one bold title is “Fray” instead of “Foray”.
Hi A.J.,
Thanks for the comment and I’m glad to hear that you like the new event listings. You can also subscribe to individual events or all of them via the iCAL feature using a calendar program of your choice.
I’ve also been accessing the website via smart phone to view the event locations page to get the address or driving instructions to the walk sites.
Thanks for the proof reading and catching the Fray/Foray typo it did not come up in a spell check of course.
If people are happy about the sites functionality then I think we will move to step three in a couple of weeks time and try to come up with a pretty and functional design and add in rest of the old content etc.
Richard
Your Bolete Filter is normally excellent, but seems to be down
A few days have passed since your message. The Bolete filter is working again. Just a temporary glitch, sorry about that.