© 2019 Jena Lassiter
© 2019 The Urantia Book Fellowship
by Jena Lassiter
The Ad Hoc Web Content Committee is tasked with making decisions about the actual content of the site and how it is presented. We have done a total redesign of the site that takes a user-centered design approach. This approach attempts to identify personas of people who are likely to use the site and structure the content so that those users can quickly find what they need. The work being done here is blended with the work from the Ad Hoc IT Committee (led by Emilio Coppola) that is leading the Wild Apricot migration from Business Catalyst website.
Below is an incomplete list of some of the features of the site.
- A beautiful look and feel for the site with all aspects of graphics designed by Gary Tonge.
- A totally new Urantia Book online in English from Barry Clark that developed:
- Search results that show section, paragraph and page number
- A 1934 dictionary that shows root words in the word definitions
- On-page references to other documents that could help with research of a particular paper
- Playable link to hear a reading of the book
- We have been developing a Resource Center table that can be sorted many different ways to show all the assets (articles, videos, newsletters, meeting minutes) we have and thus to enable people to easily find the articles they are interested in.
- There is a download page that enables downloads of the book and search engines in all languages that we have.
- A new Spanish Website.
¶ What I and the team are doing
The team I am working with is effective and synergistic.
- Richard Daunt provides the technical understanding of the Wild Apricot system, provides leadership for what needs to get done so that we can release the website, and serves as the liaison with the IT Committee.
- Barry Clark’s database background has enabled him to develop a way to show references and assets we have that will help UB readers find resources that will help them.
- Gary Tonge’s design background enables a very professional and beautiful look in the Discover page video and in all the graphics on the site.
- Albert Einstein Lassiter’s EECS background in user interface design enables a site that will be more functionally productive than the previous site. Also, Albert has great attention to detail and a strong background in test. His direction with developing personas for the site that focuses our navigation and content for the specific types of users is the foundation for the redesign.
- Jack Holloway and Pablo Segovia are tirelessly working to make the Spanish website be a primary connection for Urantia Book readers in Central and South America.
- These short descriptions of capability and accomplishments are so small in comparison to the incredible contributions each is making. - My software development background is also in user-interface design as well as web design and SEO.
After initial release:
¶ Metrics
- Plans to create sets of metrics for the site using Google Analytics so that we can see which users are coming to the site and where they go once they arrive. Barry offers a lot of experience in this area too.
¶ Issue Tracking
- Albert set up an issue tracking list in ClickUp that we can use going forward to make sure we fix issues found by us and others.
¶ Google AdWords
- The Fellowship has a grant from Google to use of AdWords per month. We have plans in place to determine how to optimally use those ads to help bring people to the revelation.