Birchwood Town Council approached us to ask if we would redevelop their existing website which was looking rather dated and did not display content very well on mobile devices.
This case study outlines our approach to creating a website design to meet the council's needs.
These needs included compliance with Level AA of the WCAG 2.1 Accessibility Guidelines, a legal requirement for public sector organisations in the UK and EU.
When the council asked us to create a responsive (see note) website design we first of all installed the latest available release of Joomla! CMS on a server with restricted access (limited to the council and ourselves) to facilitate collaboration during the website design process.
We then customised the Joomla! CMS website's Content (categories, articles and modules) and Navigation Structure (menus and menu links) to meet the council's needs.
Finally, we created a custom WYNCHCO template design, incorporating the design elements described in this case study, to project the council's website and brand across the widest possible range of devices (phones, tablets and PCs) and screen sizes.
Our aim: to create a RESPONSIVE accessible website design.
What we mean by a RESPONSIVE website design is one that will look good on PCs, tablets and smartphones AND one that will respond to YOUR needs as well.
For example: your need to be able to change website branding OR the look & feel of website content.
A custom WYNCHCO template design incorporates:
many many combinations of styles, which we call STYLE SETS, and
a USER FRIENDLY INTERFACE
to enable YOU to make such changes with just a few simple mouse clicks or finger dabs (if you are using a touch screen device).
not to change the default TEXT SIZE and LETTER SPACING,
to insert 10 PX PADDING above the Container, and
to add ROUNDED corners.
The council can adjust these settings any time they wish, simply by toggling a few buttons in the Template Styles screen of their website's control panel.
For example, they might in future choose to:
square the container corners and remove the top padding, or
The council chose not to change the background colour of the HEADER which sits behind their website's BRAND, or to change its width.
And for now decided not to display SIDEBARS in their website.
The council can always change their mind, simply by toggling a couple of buttons in the Template Styles screen of their website's control panel.
And if they choose to display Sidebars they can separately style any Modules they want to display in those Sidebars using our separate BOXES Style Set.
WYNCHCO website designs enable two optional BOXES to be displayed in the NAVBAR.
One is a SEARCHBOX in the navbar-landscape-top position.
The council chose not to display the Main Menu in the above position and so the Searchbox remains hidden in their website.
One is however included ready for use if the council decide in future to move the Main Menu from its current position to the navbar-landscape-top position.
Another Box is a CALLBOX (see above image) which can be displayed in the Navbar on Phones and Tablets (portrait).
Reason: to display a Call to Action.
The council chose to display CONTACT US as their call to action, the text being linked to their website's contact page.
The council may in future replace the text with an image via the Template Styles screen of their website's control panel.
They could also change the link, for example, to one which will trigger a phone call to be made when dabbed on a mobile device.
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