1. ABDO Board and staff meeting New website developments
Wednesday 8 May 2013
The Compleat Angler, Marlow
ABDO Board and staff meeting
New website developments
Michael R Potter FBDO
Head of Marketing and Communications

2. New website developments Background
ABDO has had a website ( since the late 1990s
It last received a design update in 2008, but this utilised work already in progress prior to the Association adopting clearly defined brand and corporate guidelines
Although the 2008 update was an improvement on what existed before, in design terms, it was no more than a superficial ‘face lift’
The existing site now looks ‘tired’ and a completely new ‘look and feel’ is needed
Technology has also changed, hence a completely new site needed to be developed using the latest platforms

3. New website developments Design aims
The new website design must be truly representative of a professional association
It must be:
Aesthetically appealing
Easy to use and navigate and without gimmicks
Sophisticated
The design should be corporate complaint, fit with and enhance the Association’s corporate guidelines, ie be:
Dynamic
Easy to navigate and access information – ie ‘in just one or two clicks’
Innovative
Interesting
Inviting and appealing at a glance
Make good use of innovation, new technology and graphics
Representative

4. New website developments Design aims
The new ABDO website design must reflect the Association’s brand values:
Competence
Consistency
Efficiency
Forward-looking
Honesty
Integrity
Professionalism
Reliability
Trust

5. New website developments Functionality
Functionally, the existing site works well , so the new website retains all of the proven functionality of the existing website eg:
Bulletin boards
CET
Dispensing Optics
Interface with the membership database
Online bookings
Online payments
etc…
As with the existing site, there is a separate ‘members only’ area
The existing website uses a ‘WAM’ (Web Access Module) interface to access the ABDO database, the new site also incorporates this, but this does significantly restrict the design possibilities
The new site provides greater security from viral attack
Better analysis of site visits will also be available ie Google Analytics
ABDO will now have greater control over content management

6. New website developments So what’s new?
The new website has been ‘built from scratch’, so it is completely new
The site features:
A ‘Search’ facility
A ‘Sitemap’
A ‘Library’
A ‘Locations’ section, featuring Google maps
A new ‘Forums’ section
A ‘Gallery’ section, that presents event pictures in an attractive way
The ‘Home’ page acts a ‘dashboard’ so that navigation is easy and information can be quickly access
The ‘Home’page:
is ‘News’ and ‘Events’ driven
features animation and graphical ‘adverts’ that can be used to highlight important topics and information
And has the new website has much more…
…so let’s have a look at it!

7. New website developments Final build-up to the launch
After this meeting you will be sent a link so that you can look at the site in your own time
Please let us have any feedback within the next week
Heads of department need to provide any additional content or content amendments to MRP/NH, by , by midday on Friday 17 May
Subject to any outstanding issues we could look to go live around 25/27-ish of May
But please remember there are still some outstanding development issues to be completed eg online booking