Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
A tale of two Council website home-pages
I'VE RECENTLY made visits to the Borough of Sutton in south London, where the Liberal Democrat Party have just won a by-election. The most obvious difference with Haringey is the state of the streets: Sutton's are noticeably cleaner!
However, one difference between the Boroughs can be compared from anywhere in the world: and that is the home pages of the Councils' respective websites. For ease of comparison, I've put them side-by-side and same-size:
Haringey
Sutton
(click to enlarge: un-retouched screen-shot from 30" screen)
Haringey's home page appears bitty and cluttered. Our council tries to force everything into the first view, whereas the Liberal Democrat Council's home page is scrollable. I suggest the services are better laid out in the latter. Sutton's first view also focuses better on the resident-user who wants to report a problem and to get it fixed.
A Borough's home-page is it's face to the world.
Couldn't we do as well as Sutton?
If not, at least better than our present effort?
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Council home page: Haringey
Council home page: Sutton
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Councillor and
Liberal Democrat
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P.S. Update above to reflect changes 2015-09-21 to Haringey's website (screenshots captured within seconds of each other—click to enlarge).
Tags for Forum Posts: Council, Haringey, Sutton, home page, web page
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by johnagall on
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Islington are going through a big website change this year too as theirs was very cluttered.
Technology is constantly evolving and councils aren't the best in this respect but with the looming cuts further to their funding from central government they are going to have to push services that they can online to try to save money.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Clive:
I've enjoyed reading your posts commenting on the Council over the years and agreed with many of them.
But now you are a councillor and, in effect, part of the Council, it seems odd that you continue to complain about the defects in the way the Borough is run. Wouldn't it be better to take this up, in your capacity as councillor, with the appropriate department, rather than air your gripes on here without saying what you propose to do about them ? I think your nemesis Alan has often said " why moan on here ?: why not contact the Council ? "
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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it seems odd that you continue to complain
John, gimme a chance! The first time I compared the two sites was this morning.
I thought residents might like to see the differences, possibly discuss and see if anyone agrees with me. I think our Council's home page at best looks pedestrian … and possibly dreary, when compared with Sutton's.
Posting here doesn't preclude my pointing out the defects, as I see them, to the powers that be. Not that they'd take much notice of an Oppo Councillor. From time to time the Council does take a peak at social media.
Sutton's is better designed, but I also suggest that the two home pages reflects a different approach, possibly political, though not necessarily party political.
For me, Haringey's home page is a statement and is more Council-centric: we are the Council, here is a list of things that we do.
Sutton's home page seems more resident-focused: the message seems to be, right now, what do you want the Council to do?
This is partly a question of emphasis: Haringey Council also has links to report problems, but those links are almost lost in amongst other stuff, such as the news of an award to the Council Leader. In my opinion, our Council's website contains too much self-congratulatory stuff.
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Wouldn't it be better to take this up, in your capacity as councillor, with the appropriate department, rather than air your gripes on here without saying what you propose to do about them ?
John, I hadn't intended to report this, but last Monday, a colleague and I did take direct action over a 'gripe' in the I.T. field. We attended for the first time a "Cabinet Member" signing. BTW, this is at least in part, open to the public.
The Lead or Cabinet Member last Monday signed a contract that will see approximately £350,000 per annum, paid to Microsoft, for a software Licence, for at least three years.
In the small meeting, a colleague and I made the point that the reliance on a single company could be lessened if the Council began (better, had begun) moves toward Open Source software. This route – and possibly only this route – offers any hope of reducing this spending, in the long run.
The Council's own report makes it clear how utter is the dependency, but then almost immediately, it dismisses Open Source.
There are a variety of vested interests that are too extensive to go into now. If you're interested, there's more here.
The Council is trapped, or Locked-In and had no choice in the matter.
My colleague and I will expect to see a report about Open Source software in the next few months.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I think that the problem is the one you've identified Clive. By building systems dependent of Microsoft Haringey and many other councils are indeed trapped. Moving to an open source alternative now would mean massive redesign and high initial costs. Interesting article about it below.
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2341969/-each-time-we-look-at-o...
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I've had a very quick look at the two home pages. Sutton's is certainly more attractive and appealing, and it has more contemporary styling, but I'm not sure that the utility is that different, is it? Perhaps you've done more that react to the superfical appearance and have done at least some rudimentary analysis of the design before passing judgement. I haven't.
I did however click through on a couple of links and both sites seemd relatively easy to use. However, the report links at the top of the Sutton website all returned error messages about my needing to disable a pop-up blocker. As far as I'm aware I have no pop-up blocker and have never seen these warnings generated by any other site I've visited.
Since using the Enfield site recently, another litmus test I would now do on a council site is to check the ease with which a phone contact can be found. How easy is it to find a phone number from the front page? How many clicks away is it?
Look at Enfield's website, Clive. That might enable you to step outside of party political point-scoring for a minute and positively glow with pride about Haringey's website.
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The problem with websites with a scrolling home page is that they are very difficult for someone with a visual impairment to navigate using software that reads the screen and converts it to audio. The technology just doesn't know that there is more off the screen. That is one reason a lot of public websites go to great pains to keep all the information on a single screen on the home page. A good example is Salford council's website which is a multiple award winner - link at the bottom. I agree that the Sutton one is attractive but I did expect to see at least a way into what I was looking for on the first screen without having to move it down. I got the messages about pop up blockers same as Hugh.
I do agree that the Haringey site is designed more around how the council is structured rather than the kind of business a resident or business may wish to do with them. I also think one of the big problems with the Haringey site is that it can link though to rather scant information (try finding out about Wolves Lanes garden centre!). Maybe they could use HoL to recruit a few critical friends to do some user testing for them (I'll put my hand up)
https://www.salford.gov.uk/index.htm
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Michael, thanks for your comments. I take your point that some public websites try to put all information onto a single screen on the home page, without a need to scroll.
But how successful could such a policy be, given the variety of screen sizes out there and the trend to more portable (i.e. smaller) devices such as phones, tablets and laptops?
Inevitably its going to be a compromise.
I agree that – for a given space – Salford's does at a good job. All Council websites are broadly trying to do the same job, provide access to Council services. But for me, Haringey's looks dated and to be collection of short lists.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Making the site accessible has to take priority, given that it may be the first place people have to go for local info. You could draw on the expertise of some of your fellow councillors who would surely be happy to chat with you about this. I don't particularly want to see photos on a home page, especially as they are probably public domain and less than relevant to the region. Make it functional, not pretty.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Smith on
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And the Haringey site seems to generally do better if you run it through an accessibility checker.
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As a PS on Sutton's cleaner streets. I'm sure that waste contract has a big impact in this but so does population density. The ONS stats show that Haringey has a density of 8,632 people per square kilometre (11th highest in England) while Sutton has half that at 4,358.
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