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Manchester City Council

manchester.gov.uk

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Re: Manchester City Council

#201

Post by hluska »

Xylakant wrote: post #159
sdp wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't heard of the dyslexic font situation. After a little searching, I found: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121004/18530620612/font-... I assume that's the legal situation to which you are referring.

Yes. I haven't been following the outcome, so that might be resolved but my latest info bit is that it's currently a minefield. Comic Sans is a viable alternative for most use cases though.

I think that's the first time in recorded history that anyone has said that Comic Sans is a viable alternative...:)

Re: Manchester City Council

#203

Post by jabbernotty »

tobydownton wrote: post #140
thinkersilver wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It is easy to complain about how boostrappy or wordpress like the theme is, but it is immaterial the source of the design inspiration. The most import thing is, that it works and is functional. Try going to the birmingham.gov.uk or london.gov.uk or any of the boroughs in London and see how much of an improvement this approach actually is.

I just started as a BA at Westminster, currently working on customer journeys and user stories, redesigned website and content to follow early next year....watch this space...!

What is a BA?

Re: Manchester City Council

#204

Post by frogpelt »

DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

If accessibility is the issue, the standard for websites really ought to change.

How? Well, we don't require that stairs be accessible for everyone. We require a ramp or an elevator in addition to the stairs.

Perhaps the standards for web accessibility should change so that websites will have an easily accessible alternative design for those who need it and the standard design for everyone else.

Re: Manchester City Council

#206

Post by aasarava »

DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

> Web Developer common sense rule #1 — Always put alt tags on images, especially when they're being used as icons in content sections, wow.

Actually, no. The icons are correctly labeled with text and many of the images are CSS background images (which can't have ALT text anyway.) In their usage, a screen reader would sound out the text on screen, providing a user with enough information to make a browsing decision.

Even if the images were inline rather than applied in the background, you need to use ALT decisively. ALT text that repeats what is already a link label can be more redundant than helpful.

Re: Manchester City Council

#207

Post by jmathai »

aasarava wrote: post #206
DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

> Web Developer common sense rule #1 — Always put alt tags on images, especially when they're being used as icons in content sections, wow. Actually, no. The icons are correctly labeled with text and many of the images are CSS background images (which can't have ALT text anyway.) In their usage, a screen reader would sound out the text on screen, providing a user with enough information to make a browsing decision. E…

More importantly they've got a section specifically for accessibility.

Well done.

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/accessibility/settings

Re: Manchester City Council

#208

Post by corresation »

hglaser wrote: post #169
DigitalSea wrote: post #70

I applaud the change and thinking outside of the box, but the Manchester City Council website looks like a $45 Wordpress theme off of Themeforest. The slider appears to offer no value to the site other than taking up a massive amount of room without really justifying its existence. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer and I am struggling to understand the reasoning behind that slider. While I agree that the trendy loo…

What a predictable top comment for a Hacker News thread. :( A government website showcases a design that is leaps and bounds ahead of any other government site we can think of , and HN's top comment casually dismisses it. To rewrite something you said: "This is the perfect example of everything wrong with [HN comments]." I, for one, am floored that someone in city government was able to rise above the bureaucracy and…

On a recent story about AngularJS, one of the top comments was someone noting that they think poorly of AngularJS because the website for the project "looks like a Bootstrap site".

To which I say: Who gives a shit.

I say the same here. The site looks fantastic, and I would love if my local municipality had something as clean and functional, whether or not it looks like a wordpress theme.

Too many want to be world weary. They want to announce that they can see under the covers and thus are above it. I don't get it.

Re: Manchester City Council

#209

Post by adventureloop »

nly wrote: post #93
adventureloop wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Complain all you want, but http://www.aberdeen.gov.uk doesn't exist at all. For the third city in Scotland I find that really embarrassing.

Aberdeen is an independent city council http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/

Well that really clears things up for me, thank you. Site is still pretty horrible though.

Re: Manchester City Council

#210

Post by evo_9 »

mixmax wrote: post #200
mkopinsky wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original title was "How government sites should be designed".

changing it was a bad decision IMO. Without the context this submission makes no sense at all.

Yes, the title changing has gotten seriously out of hand lately. I don't get it either, it's not like the original title was confusing (unlike the new title).
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