Designs – Concepts and layouts: Part 2 – the lighter side of life

Around a week ago, we showcased possible new designs for the warwickshire.gov.uk website – and (although not much of it has been through this blog) we’ve had a lot of excellent feedback, focusing around a few key points:

1. Navigation;
2. Search;
3. Orientation;
4. Colour, and
5. Light.

Well, we heard everything you said (so much so, that we’ll be following this up in the near future with a more detailed look at what you told us) – and we’ve made a few changes to the concept (and some of our ideas) because of it.

We asked you about horizontal or vertical navigation. We did have some comments supporting vertical, but most were in favour of horizontal. Unfortunately, it’s got to be either one or the other – there’s no middle ground. So we’ve taken the decision to go with horizontal/top navigation. We’ll talk a bit more about this in future posts.

And with that, we present to you…

New concepts

 

Horizontal Navigation - Service Listing (lighter version)

 

Horizontal Navigation - Service Page (lighter version)

 

So – what do you think?

Is the lighter design better?

Have we heard everything you’ve said to us?

Do you have a particular gripe about how we do things online?

The comment box is just below, our email address is webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk – and you’re open to ask us about anything, anytime.

Designs – Concepts and layouts

After a lot of thought about how you’re currently using the existing Warwickshire County Council website, analysis of your feedback on how we should be sorting our services, and discussions around how we’re planning to deliver even better services to you online – we’ve got some screenshots to show you.

The following images are all of work-in-progress / beta designs – and it’s important to note that nothing (literally – nothing) has been agreed / decided on yet. The colour scheme is still to be confirmed (it might not be our ‘traditional’ green), two column and three column layouts are both possibilities, and before we come close to switching ‘off’ our old design we’d like you to have an opportunity to play around with a live beta (which is a few months away).

So, when looking at the following screenshots, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

• we want all of our online websites / applications to have consistent elements (such as a standardised header), so they’re easier to navigate through;
• we’re using high-contrast colours to bring information out and focus your eyes on important sections (such as ‘contact details’, or ‘forms’) that are currently lost in the middle of paragraphs or at the bottom of long pages;
• we think the search engine should be easily accessible from wherever you are (and we’ve got a few ideas about the technology behind how you search too) – which is why we’ve made it more prominent, and;
• you’ve told us that you’d like more information on where we are / how you can reach us – so we’re experimenting with Google Maps (using non Ordinance Survey derived data) to bring you more useful content.

And with that – here are the screenshots, which you can click on for larger (high resolution) versions.

Possible layout #1: 2 column, horizontal navigation

Horizontal Navigation - Service Listing

Horizontal Navigation - Service Page

Possible layout #2: 3 column, vertical navigation

Vertical Navigation - Service Listing

Vertical Navigation - Service Page

So now that you’ve seen a few screenshots – what do you think? Are we going in the right direction? Is information easier for you to find quickly – or have we made it more difficult? Which do you prefer – two columns or three? Should we have horizontal navigation, or vertical?

We’ll publish some homepage designs at a later date, but as most of our traffic actually comes from Google searches, straight to the information pages, we thought we’d concentrate on these to start with. The decisions here will then influence the homepage.

We want your thoughts. Leave comments below or email webmaster@warwickshire.gov.uk