Welcome to our new site! We've been hard at work behind the scenes looking at how best to reflect what Screen WM does via the web, and also thinking about how we can get you involved on the site. The results of our labours are right here for you to get stuck in with - and of course, we really want your feedback, positive, negative or indifferent, to help us make sure the site delivers what you want.
For my inaugural blog post, I thought I'd share some of the 'big ideas' that steered us towards the new-look, new-feel website, and some of the challenges we faced when trying to communicate the broad range of activity we're involved in (not sure what that is? Start here to read more about just who we are and what we do).
Starting out, one big idea was interactivity. Our old site - we remember it fondly - was a goldmine of information about Screen WM's funds and projects. But that was all it could do - present text-based information that we put up there. Where's the fun in that? So we cooked up some ideas, and the first of those to be implemented right here is the ability for you to comment on our news stories and blog posts. We want to hear your thoughts and also to respond to them when we can - it's a great tool for sharing ideas and information so I can't wait to see that in action.
We thought a lot about usability and user-friendliness - anyone who's worked on a web project with me in the past will know it's something I bang on and on about. The first step was to think about all the different kinds of information we host on our site, and how best to present that to you, our audience, clients and stakeholders. We've tried to strip away any obscure section titles in favour of a 'does-what-it-says-on-the-tin' approach - and we hope you like it. You'll notice there's an awful lot of info tucked away under 'Investment & Funding' at the top - because a lot of what we do is covered by that title. Have a browse around and see how easy you find it to get to the info you're looking for. And tell us if you don't find it easy!
Lastly, as your Regional Screen Agency, we felt it wasn't enough to have still images from projects on our site. So we're really excited to present the SWM Channel - a home for outstanding video content from the West Midlands, as well as informative clips from sessions we run, and teaser clips from upcoming film projects we've been involved in. You'll notice there's only a handful of videos there right now - at this point I fall back on my Google-nabbed 'always in beta' mantra - but we've got lots of ideas for content for the Channel in the coming months, including throwing the gauntlet down to you to create content for it yourselves - watch this space for more info.
So I hope you like our new site, and can't wait to hear your comments, feedback and ideas for how we can improve it even more. Happy browsing!
P.S. if, like me, you love the new site design by Birmingham-based Tak!, why not pop over to their page to see more of their work.