Council website
The Hackney Council website has had a fairly comprehensive make-over: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/
What do people think of the new site?
posted by Luke Akehurst at 11:59 am
Monday, February 04, 2008
What do people think of the new site?
About Me
- Name: Luke Akehurst
- Location: Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
8 Comments:
At least Jules mug isn't there anympre
12:11 pm, February 04, 2008
I think it's clearer and more logically organised. Some bits of the old site are incorporated within frames, which isn't so good - such as councillors' profiles - but as the site itself says, it's still a work in progress.
It's a shame the council didn't opt for designing the new site with full AAA accessibility - apart from making the information available to all, it would have sent out the right message and set the right example.
I would also have liked to see RSS incorporated, so residents had a simple way of receiving updates about the sections that interested them.
One other quibble - I hate the counterintuitive navigation on pages like this one: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/xc-news-jan08.htm
I want to click on the read article headings - it took me a while to spot the navigation is on the left.
But overall, yes - I like it much more than what it replaced.
12:37 pm, February 04, 2008
Luke
I read in the paper today the Labour Government have made bigamy legal. Your views on this please
4:14 pm, February 04, 2008
No they haven't. They've said people who live here and have got married in countries where polygamy is legal can get the appropriate treatment by the tax and benefits system as if it were legal.
I'm uneasy with this in theory - if anything I'd rather have it the other way round, allow polygamy if everyone is aware it's going on, but not any tax and benefits advantage.
However I'm not clear there really is such an advantage - I think a man 'married' to four women would actually get more as a household out of the system as it stands if they claimed to be a normal married couple plus a lesbian civil partnership, house-sharing.
7:16 pm, February 04, 2008
Looks good... could perhaps use some RSS feeds for news and the like.
10:38 am, February 05, 2008
All comments below offered with an awareness of just how appallingly expensive anything to do with I.T. seems to get, before escalating further.
The webiste has a tad still-dated feel to it, but as stated already it's work in progress, and it’s plain and functional which is no bad thing. All the clicks that I tried worked promptly and smoothly (but for one first-time blip). Maybe navigation needs some easing?
It could be improved with a front page one-click link directly to Councillors’ profiles. But there again, blimey! Look at the coupon on that first Councillor listed for Chatham Ward!
I do like the ‘Do It Online’ section with the easy three big buttons on the front page
It could be greatly improved with enhancement of the ‘Accessibility’ icon on the front page. At present it is much too obscure when you think of the audience it may have to serve… a bit like written notices advising blind people where to go for help?
2:07 pm, February 05, 2008
So, let's say, person A is feeling a bit bigamous today and is already married to person B, he can nip over to Saudi Arabia, marry person C, come back and bingo it's all okay?
Surely that's legalising bigamy by the back door?
11:57 pm, February 05, 2008
it's just been pointed out to me that may be a slightly offensive accidental double entendre... the serious point stands though.
11:59 pm, February 05, 2008
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