We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved, not least for the following reasons:
- we delivered the project on time. We said we would launch on 29 January 2014 and we did!
- we were under budget; not all of the project cash got spent, so we handed some back
- we hired local people to work on the site – three of the small team we had all live in Lambeth
- we actively engaged with residents right from day one, and did more user testing than any of us have ever done on a project. Read more about our user testing activities
- we put our users first. One of the project principles was that we shouldn’t be making decisions based on just our (albeit expert) opinions, we should be looking at testing, research or evidence to back them up
- the site is responsive – it works on mobiles, tablets and any screen size, so you can browse the site however and wherever you prefer
- the new site is accessible – this means we’ve done what we can to make sure people of all abilities can access the site and its features
- this website will save the council money. Every customer contact online costs on average nine pence. On the phone that rises to £2.59 and face to face, £8.15.
New site, new features
If you haven’t already seen the site, have a look around. There’s a new design and lots of new features, including:
- neighbourhood pages for the different areas of Lambeth, where residents can find out the latest consultations, events in their area, popular places and what people are talking about on Twitter
- a variety of maps, where people can find their nearest services, contact information, opening hours, customer centres, educational establishments, leisure centres, libraries, recycling points and more
You can also find consultations, improved online forms and events pages, where community groups will be able to register and post their own events.
Let us know what you think
Thank you to each and every one of you who got in touch and contributed – whether that’s online, at a drop-in session, at one of our usability testing sessions or on email.
We’ll keep on improving the site, so do let us know if you have any more comments by filling in our online feedback form.
Kate, Kat, Rebekah, Kelly, John, Stephen, Toria, Glenn, Tim and Jimmy from the Lambeth web project team
Find out more about how we made the site at madeinlambeth.co.uk
I found this a very useful resource and whilst I appreciate the intent was to make the site easier to navigate, websites such as the BBC retain a lot of content whilst still managing to keep the interface simple.
I think it is a shame to lose content and require every person who has a question to make a phone call every time they have what might be a very simple query.
Hi Henry, thanks for commenting. We haven’t included a lot of content from the old site to ensure the new one is easy to navigate and useful content doesn’t get lost. We’ll take your comments on board and you can contact the housing advice line for more info on leaseholding – http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/housing/housing-advice/get-housing-advice
There used to be a significant amount of information for Council leaseholder, but either I cannot find these pages, or the information has been removed.
Well done Kate, Kelly and the gang. It looks great and look forward to using it.
Hi David, Thanks very much for your comments, we really want to know what people think of the new site and will be making improvements based on resident feedback.
To answer some of your points:
There’s info on changing text size at http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/elections-and-council/website-support/accessibility We’ve done a lot of user and accessibility testing with people with visual impairments and other disabilities and will continue to do so to make sure we’re getting it right.
Contact details aren’t prominent on the homepage as we think it’s likely you’ll find answers to questions via the website; if you do need to contact the council the relevant details are on each service page.We’ve included info on lambeth councillors at http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/elections-and-council – we’ve aimed to keep only the most useful and used links on the homepage to keep it user-friendly.
We have a dedicated site for young people at http://www.younglambeth.org/
We hope we’ve covered finding local news on our explore Lambeth pages for example http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/explore-lambeth/brixton we wanted to ensure the different areas of Lambeth were represented and people could find information relevant to them.
We’ll be updating the homepage images periodically and will definitely be using images that reflect the borough. Thanks again for your your thoughts
The new website looks as if you have got lambeth college students to produce the website. having links underlined is so early 90’s and does not complement the pages for links.
Is there availability for people with partial site to expand text to a larger type face?
There are no contact numbers on the home page and the lambeth councillors should be listed on home page in either a drop dwon ribbon or a ribbon block and lick to their info.
The photograph on the home page should be able to change so the photographs reflect Lambeth – people – architecture –
There should be an interactive site for young people – a learning site on the page exspecially before exam times.
The brixton news should be available on the website for those people who are house bound in Lambeth
my first paid job with Lambeth ( directorate of civil engineering and public services ) was in May / June 1969 , I were a gardener at Vauxhall Park .
congrats! it looks great – soooo much better than the old one – where’s the section on zombie apocalypse – i can’t find it anywhere and according to rumour ALL local councils are required to have a plan…