The Story Behind the New Website:
Many of us liked the “retro” look and feel of the old website, with its usability controls reminiscent of an era gone by, however, the platform it was constructed on had aged and with that it had become unavailable to us for timely updates or adding new features.
Further issues with the old website: 1. old-world navigation controls made it unfamiliar and harder to use for younger users used to modern standard website navigation controls; 2. it resided with our internet service provider under a decommissioned service; 3. that the internet service provider was long out of the website admin service business and handling our site on a “best-efforts” basis; it was difficult, untimely and time-consuming to make simple edits or add basic content; 4. our own users were forgetting or misplacing their member login credentials which further required an admin overhead to fix on each instance; 5. it lacked decent viewing capability on mobile phones. All of this effectively resulted in a website which had atrophied to out-of-date content and expensive, untimely and burdensome administration.
The website world had progressed, too, with new look, new and standard navigation controls, modern and mobile-savvy multi-device interface capabilities (meaning modern website platforms are savvy to whether they are being viewed on a laptop or tablet versus a mobile phone), and readily available and cost-effective “build your own” website platforms. After some consideration we decided to modernize. Decision factors: 1. Expected outcome quality; 2. build tooling; 3. build and ongoing hosting fees; 4. maintenance effort; 5. quality of multi-platform delivery, and 6. availability of skills to contribute and maintain these new types of websites. Our choice: We selected SquareSpace.
Through volunteer efforts on the website build, ongoing structural enhancements, content and photo contributions, we continue to avoid build and admin costs outside the annual squarespace fees for hosting our website and providing the interface for website modifications and content additions and updates. We have already saved thousands, and the savings will continue into the future, while also giving us a more useful and informative website.
