5 Feb 2010

Tenants First Website to get Makeover

We are about to launch a new version of our website within the next couple of weeks. Designed and created by our in-house IT Team, it has a clean, fresh look and the new design reflects the corporate colours of the Co-operative and other material that we publish.

One of the biggest changes to the site is the organisation of pages and sections. This will make it easier for users to find the information they are looking for. We have created the new site primarily aimed at four main groups:

	People looking for housing
	Our current members
	Other housing providers and professional bodies
	The media

We recognise that the most important aspect of our website is to provide useful information and have designed the site with this in mind. We have opted not to use flashy graphics or effects, in places where we felt it would distract from the site’s purpose. However we have taken this opportunity to include useful new features and content, such as:

	‘Getting Involved’ section
	Gallery slide shows for our new build housing developments
	Some video of completed new build developments and animations of forthcoming ones
	Google Maps, showing housing stock details as well as office locations
	Graphs on our Performance pages

Accessibility is one of the main focal points of this redesign. We have taken several measures to make the website easy to read, navigate and interact with. Users of assistive technology, such as screen readers, will find the site welcoming and informative.

We have completely reviewed the site navigation, and included a more comprehensive search function to the site. This may look very different to what we had before, but we believe it will help to make it easier to find the information you need.

A lot of our existing features and content has been given a face lift, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We are working on updating existing content, as well as adding new features that we believe will be useful.Please bear with us if any of the sections that you remember have changed, or seem incomplete at first.

We hope you like the new site and we will be giving you the opportunity to let us know what you think of it once it is up and running.