Good day directors. I’ve created this page with the sole purpose of helping present the new web site and show you the work that I’ve done. This whole creation is done using WordPress. The design and hosting is 100% done on the web server so no need for PC software nor HTML expertise. It’s a lot more like using a word processor. WordPress makes designing and maintaining the site a whole lot simpler. I’m building this on a sub-domain. It’s totally public, but nobody is likely to just wander onto it. This page cannot be navigated to except by the email that I sent to you. If you leave this page, you will need to use your Back Button or follow the email again,
Front Page
The Front Page is where people land when they first visit the site. It’s the front door. This is where you get thirty seconds to make your elevator pitch and convince people to read through the web site or even join the club.
As we modernize the club’s digital presence, I am developing a few different “front door” concepts to replace our current placeholder, which really just explains what we need to target and why. The goal is to move toward a responsive, block-based architecture—which simply means the site will automatically adjust its layout whether a member is viewing it on a high-resolution desktop or a smartphone at a car show.
I have been using Gemini to help learn WordPress and even help with some design. I have a front page example that I worked on with Gemini (AI). I also want to create a few more so we have some selection and ideas of what we want to see. I think it’s important to have the new site polished, at least somewhat, before the official launch. We will undoubtedly need some discussion over emails. I’d really appreciate you looking through and provide any feedback on structure and navigation in addition to thinking about the Front Page. I’ve been particularly interested in OECC for some time. They have a fairly tidy site, also done with WordPress.
Here we go.
Volvo Club of British Columbia Home was put together with the help of Google Gemini. It has some very basic blocks and is quite simple. It relies on photos, which I had, but are not particularly great. In addition to the universal navigation bar across the top, we highlight Join, Upcoming Events, write-ups from past events, and another Join the Club. I’m not too sure about the past event writeups and duplication of Join. Maybe highlighting Classified Ads might be a better option.
I will keep at it and list those additional Front Pages as they become ready. Some are just me playing with ideas. Tell me what you like and what we should try. When you navigate to these examples, you will have to either use your browser’s Back button or follow the URL in the email. There is no way to navigate here from the demo web site.
Tech Tips
I’ve had some great feedback suggesting that we add a section on Tech Tips, having them categorized by model. Links would point to online newsletter issues where they are found. This should be quite straightforward.
Members Only Area
I would suggest that we sort out exactly what we want to be password protected. I’m hoping that WordPress will make this task simpler than it has been through the Hosting Panel on the 2005 site. Do we secure all newsletters or just the current few? How about Tech Tips?
Joining the Club
Follow to the Join page I have as a demo. I have added a form so that people can fill out and submit, following by their payment of some form, probably the old standard cheque. The form will secretly email the details to the membership director, eliminating the need to type out the details from a hand-filled paper copy. We should probably have a close look at the existing membership form and make sure it’s all still current and relevant.