BOYLE - The Village of Boyle is hoping a fresh, new website will make it easier for residents to find the information they are looking for and to contribute their thoughts on what the village has to offer.
Boylealberta.ca is the upgrade to the old boylealberta.com website and has now been live on the web for a couple weeks and now that many of the kinks are worked out, developer Paul Clyburn is looking for public feedback.
“We’re pretty much bringing it up to standards and making it more accessible to mobile users and what people use in their browsers. The old website was not only dated in the type of software that is running the site, but it also looked fairly dated,” said Clyburn, who is employed by the village as a public works operator, but has a varied educational and occupational background and an interest in web development.
“When they found out I had some experience building websites for various organizations and I know my way around a keyboard, they gave me the mandate to basically have at it and start working on something that looks more appealing and is more accessible.”
The village will be keeping the .com domain for a while to come, but it will be redirected to the new site.
For the time being, residents and visitors can take a look at all things Boyle, from news, to a business directory, to community notices, recreation schedules, municipal services. Council minutes and agendas can also be found there and a contact/complaint section is also available.
That’s standard fare for most municipal websites, but Clyburn envisions an even more robust, informative and interactive website.
At some point, he would like to see the village archives digitized and made available on the web. He wants residents to take part and submit pictures and stories of life in the village. And he wants to make it easier for everyone to use overall.
Currently he is looking for feedback and suggestions.
“Right now I’m looking for feedback from people that are using it. I am open to feedback and criticism to see what things are working for people and whether it’s intuitive enough … Feel free to use the website to report if something is broken.” said Clyburn, adding that could range from an illegible font or font colour that makes it hard to read or whether something is difficult to find.
If someone has seen something on another site that they liked and think would work for Boyle, that is something Clyburn wants to hear about. Because the village was able to use his skills to develop the site at a fraction of the cost of a professional developer, there is still room to add to the project and make it even better, he said.
“The more feedback the better.”
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