Our new website is live and proving popular…
Our new public website went live on Monday 2nd April – http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk. In its first month the website has attracted over 85,000 visitors and around 500,000 page views. Feedback to date has been positive with people commenting on the fresh new look and that it is easier to find information because the site is less cluttered.
A mobile version of the website is also available and will be automatically presented if you access the website using a smartphone. The mobile site is proving popular too and 21% of all visits to our website are via some form of mobile device.
Please take a look at our new website and give us your feedback.
Please complete our website feedback form to send us your feedback. Let us know if you have any problems accessing the site or have any suggestions for new information or online services.
Please visit our help pages for guidance regarding how to use the site.
Our Beta site is ready for testing…
Please visit beta.bracknell-forest.gov.uk and give us your feedback. This is a test version of our new website which is being provided for feedback purposes only at the moment. Our main website www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk is still the one to use to find out about Bracknell Forest Council and our services.
We are running the test site for one month alongside our current website. We will listen to your feedback and make any changes before the switchover to the new site at the beginning of April.
Please complete our website feedback form to send us your feedback. Let us know if you have any problems accessing the site or have any suggestions for new information or online services.
Please visit our help pages for guidance regarding how to use the site.
If you have a general enquiry relating to a council service please complete our customer enquiry form.
Flickr photos
We are changing the way photos from our Flickr site are used on the website. On the current site, users’ images are accessible via a link on the home page. The new design sees our Flickr photos streamed directly to a panel on the homepage. This means users will be able to see the latest photos in our account as they are added. We are also hoping to use some of the best photos to illustrate pages and category links on the website.
While we do have a number of contributors providing quality photos already, we are always on the look out for more photos to use on the site.We are particularly looking for photographs to help us illustrate local issues such as car parking, waste disposal and street care. Local places of interest such as Sandhurst Sports Centre, Easthampstead Cemetery and Crematorium, and Bracknell Library, are also subjects we are looking for pictures of.
Our Flickr group has 105 members, contributing over 1,000 photos, but any more are greatly welcomed. If you feel you can contribute to the cause and would like to have the opportunity to have some of your photos streamed directly onto the council website, you can find our Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bracknellforest
Search as you type…
We have added ‘search as you type’ to our website to help people to locate content. When you start typing into the search box you should now see a list of suggestions appear. When you select an item from the list you are taken directly to search results on that topic. From there you can choose what to view.
We are planning to add ‘search as you type’ functionality to the new website so would appreciate your feedback, particularly if you have any problems using it. We are aware that it does not work fully on all smartphones and are currently investigating how to fix this.
Mobile website
More and more people are accessing information and services through their mobile phones. In fact the time is swiftly approaching where more people are likely to do this via their phone than a PC or laptop.
We recognise this and so are planning to provide a mobile version of our new website. The image to the right shows how it might look on an iPhone, but it will be viewable on all smartphones.
We do already have a mobile website which can be found at http://bracknellforest.mobi/. This is a mobile version of our digital TV service and provides access to a selective range of information and services. This is because it is designed to be presented on a TV rather than a PC or a phone – and is limited by a format which relies on people to use a TV remote control to navigate around.
Our new mobile website will not be constrained in this way and you will be able to access all of the content that you’d expect to find on a PC version. We hope that this will encourage more people to visit us online to access information and request services whilst on the move.
Website design update
During October we carried out usability testing with the help of volunteers drawn from the local community. Usability testing is a technique for ensuring that users of a new website can carry out tasks effectively. A number of simple tasks were set and our volunteers were observed carrying them out and asked their feedback. This information has been used to make minor changes to the design to ensure that the new website is easy to use. We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who took part in the usability testing.
The final version of the design can be viewed here.
Having agreed the final design of the website we can now start building it. We will keep you informed of our progress.
Give an hour in Bracknell
Why give an hour?
If someone you know is missing out on the internet, they’re missing out on loads of ways to make their life easier and more enjoyable.
On the 30th October the clocks go back and we all have an extra hour. Imagine how exciting it would be if we all used this time to help someone get started online.
Help someone you know get online; it could change their life.
‘Top tasks’, ‘Popular services’ or ‘Straight to…’?
A key objective of the redevelopment of the council’s website is to help you to find information and services quickly without having to hunt around. We are planning to add a feature to pages which will take you directly to online services that our research suggests are frequently used or ‘popular’.
On a council website examples of ‘top’ or ‘popular tasks’ are:
- finding out when your rubbish/recycling bins will be collected
- renewing a library book
- paying council tax
- finding bus routes and times
What do you think we should call this feature? Suggestions currently include ‘Top tasks’, ‘Popular services’ or ‘Straight to…’
Please tell us if you like any of these choices, or if you have a better suggestion. You can either leave a comment below or email us at web.team@bracknell-forest.gov.uk
Your feedback on the website designs
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the draft designs for our new website. We really appreciate the time that you took to share your thoughts, both in person and online via our feedback form. It has helped us to select the design to use and to identify further improvements.
Design A is the design that has been selected from the three designs presented. Over half of you said that you preferred this design, describing it as ‘clean’, ‘clear’, ‘bold’, ‘modern’, ‘welcoming’, ‘uncluttered’ and ‘easy to read’.
View the selected website design (which has been updated following your feedback).
Next steps
We will be continuing to refine this design during October, during which we will be carrying out usability testing with the help of volunteers drawn from the local community. Usability testing is a technique for ensuring that users of a new website can carry out tasks effectively. A number of simple tasks will be set and our volunteers will be observed carrying them out and asked to share their experiences. This will help us to understand any issues that people may have with using the new website to enable us to put them right before it goes live.
Help us to test our new search facility
We have added a new search facility to make it quicker and easier to find what you are looking for when you visit our website. The new search is powered by Google and has been set up to search content on our website and related content from other online services, such as Modern.Gov, which provides a wealth of information on councillors and Council decisions. This was not possible previously, so we hope it will enhance your experience of our website.
We would greatly appreciate your feedback on the new search so that we can refine it even further for when we launch our new website in the Spring. Please visit our website and tell us how useful you find the search in findng content. If there is something that you couldn’t find, or it presents content that you don’t expect to see we would like to hear about it so that we can put it right. You can can find the search at the top of any page of our website and can either leave your feedback as a comment below or email us at web.team@bracknell-forest.gov.uk
