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Behind the re-development

This website is designed with you, the users, at the forefront.  You told us that the old website was no longer fulfilling your needs and expectations (full research and consultation can be found at http://medwaycouncilonline.wordpress.com/).  You told us that the content was relevant, accurate and in depth, but that finding it was difficult to say the least.  You told us that aesthetically and structurally, the website had been designed as an organisation’s shop window rather than as a user-centric information resource.

Testing has taken place throughout the design and development process in order to deliver the most user-friendly and useful website possible.  Please tell us what you think of it – all positive and negative feedback is valuable in improving the website.

About the website

Our website is intended to make finding information about services provided by Medway Council, its partners and central government straightforward and logical.  It is designed to allow you to find information and complete tasks quickly and easily. 

Accessibility

Information on accessibility is available here

Navigation

Remember that you can always get back to the home page by clicking the home tab in the top menu or by clicking on the council logo at the top left of any page. 

You can make your way to the information you want to find in several ways on this site.

1.   Search by the right hand navigation tool. This will expand as you hover over the tabs.  If you click on a tab or a sub-tab, a new page will be displayed.

  • Search by who you are – we have put together the most popular pages underneath each section to make it easier for you to have everything in one place
  • Search by what you want to do – so that you can do it quickly and easily
  • Search by location via find my nearest – if you’re looking to find out where things are in Medway and what services are on offer close to you.  Try entering your postcode for a more personal search – you computer will remember it the next time you visit.
  • Search by what we do – this is almost identical to the old website structure so if you’re finding it difficult to get around, use this and you will find all of the information you are used to in a familiar structure
  • Search by A-Z if you know exactly what you want and prefer to search by a keyword.

2.   Find your way around using the search box in the top right corner of the website. The site search facility will usually provide the easiest, fastest way of locating information on our site.  If you know what keywords you are looking for but are not sure exactly where the information is located or if you have a vague idea of what you are looking for but want to see a full list of relevant results, it is a good idea to use the search.  Type in your search phrase and press ‘enter’ or click the magnifying glass icon. Alternatively, click the magnifying glass to access a dedicated site search page.

3.   Search by top links - at the top right of all pages is a panel of quick links. Use these links to access frequently requested content or to navigate back to the home page in a single click (the city council logo at the top right of the page also acts as a home page link).

4.   Access site information and contact details – at the bottom right hand corner of the site you will find all contact details for quick reference.  Each page also contains the contact details of the relevant service.  Next to contact details you will find information about the website, for example the site map (which lists the principal levels of navigation for the whole site. Use the site map if you would like to find out more about how the website is structured).

Breadcrumb trail

At the top of each page on this site (except the home page) a "breadcrumb trail" provides links to all levels of the hierarchy above the current page location.

Breadcrumb trails serve to show the context of the current page (how it is nested) and allows users to interpret the page better and to go directly to a higher level of the site in case a similar page to the current one is wanted.

Links underneath the text on a page

Rate this page

The ‘rate this page’ feature is to help other users and to help us to get the content right on a page. If you give a web page a 5 star rating, the next user may well decide that the page is worth reading in full because it probably contains valuable information.  If you give a page a 1 star rating it tells the next reader not to bother and it tells us that we have to do some work to improve that page. It is a way of both having your say on the quality of the website to help others, and giving us feedback.

My quick links

You are probably on this website to complete a task quickly and not to browse.  By adding pages to ‘my quick links’ your computer will remember these pages.  So the next time you visit and want to complete the same task, you can get straight there, which will save you lots of time.   

Send to a friend

A quick tool to send an email containing the information on that page.  If you find a useful page and want to share it with others without them having to trawl through the whole website, you can just send that page. 

Related links

Some pages on this website will display a related links panel underneath the text.  This is used to add value to web pages by highlighting other web pages on this site (or others) that we believe you may find of interest or use

Social links

Social media - Medway Council invites communication through social media.  We tweet regularly about what we are doing (Twitter) and we have a number of Facebook profiles which serve as mini discussion groups.  You can see our latest tweets at the bottom of the page and you can also access all of our social media profiles. 

If you sign up to our social media sites (for example ‘follow’ us on Twitter or ‘like’ our pages on Facebook) then the information we publish will start to display on your profile, meaning you can access Medway Council information without needing to visit the website. All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register.

Share through social bookmarking links - at the bottom of each content page are links to assorted 'social bookmarking' websites. These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the Internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.

If you come across a page on our site that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.

All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking. Each of the sites works slightly differently so use the links below to find out which service best suits your needs.

Still need help?

If you're experiencing difficulties with the website, please do get in touch.  You can email us at webeditor@medway.gov.uk and we will respond to your query as quickly as possible. 

 

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