Web watch - November 07

Paul Carter previews our upcoming new website.

Following hot on the heels of the launch of the brand new Disability Now magazine, an all-new Disability Now website will also soon be crashing its way into the blogosphere.

We’ve spent the last few months listening to your views on what you think is good and bad about the current website, and along with our design team from Engage Group, have come up with a site that we feel can complement the exciting new start for the magazine.

Obviously, our biggest priority has been to make sure that the new site is accessible to as many people as possible, so the new look will make it much easier to navigate, and find the content you want quickly.

The picture on this page gives you a sneak preview of how it will look, although the changes to the website will be much more than merely cosmetic.

Most importantly, the focus on providing up-tothe- minute news will be shifting from the magazine to the website, a process that has already begun on the homepage of the existing site.

This will not only allow us to devote more space in the magazine to giving you “the bigger picture” but also means we will be able to bring you the stories that matter to you as they happen, instead of you having to wait up to a month to read the stories in print.

Our aim is to make disabilitynow.org.uk the fastest, most relevant disability news service on the web, with stories written by our own journalists as they break.

However, we also recognise that a site’s most precious element is its users, which is why we want to create and gather a disability community online where people can come for entertainment, information and debate.

In time, there will be a complete and radical overhaul of the forums, a feature to give you the opportunity to comment on stories posted online, and a regularly updated blog.

As the site develops, we are also hoping to bring you multimedia content, such as podcasts and videos that will bring a new and exciting dimension to your online experience.

In order to ensure that everything goes smoothly, some of the extra functionality of the site will not be available straight away, but will be introduced over the coming months.

Rest assured, we’ll keep you fully updated about any and all changes as they happen, both online and here in the magazine.