Re-launching AusMaria website

AusMaria website got a face lift. A blessing in disguise.

After having had an accident of basically deleting our website, AusMaria has been resurrected "with the glorified body."

It all appears to be a pure accident when I was upgrading our site's CMS (Content Management System), everything just cracked down without knowing its cause. Then the process of downloading and re-uploading files took place until everything just simply became dysfunctional. I had no choice but to wipe out the entire site's server.

Then an "SOS" was sent to one of our friars who helped build the site from the beginning and now, we are happy to relaunch it, this time with a new "look and feel." I do believe that it is providential rather than an accident that this tragic incident took place. It has given me an opportunity to re-evaluate after a year some of the features of our site that will make it really user-friendly but at the same time enjoyable to visit.

To enumerate some of the subtle changes. Here they are:

1FRONTPAGE INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY. Big words huh. This simply means that most of the updates to our site like the gallery, the blog, the videos are automatically updated in the frontpage. Given the technological lifestyle of so many internet surfers today, I think this is a plus as it decreases the number of clicks to access relevant information to various specific groups. And of course, it is less work for me. Nice.

2IPHONE AND IPOD FRIENDLY. Our society is increasingly developing a mobile lifestyle. We want to bring not only the work with us but also entertainment; not to mention our ADWM (A Day With Mary) devotion. This is a feature of our new site. It has an alternative layout designed for small screen like an ipod and iphone and that will require a fast download time. People just want to find out immediately, for example, the next ADWM event and venue; someone wants to know in a snap, the celebration in one of our friaries for any Marian feasts; or just simply find out, the new video clip of Fra Gabriel with his stunts of his skateboard.

3CLEAN AND LOGICAL NAVIGATION SYSTEM. I believe that one of the secrets that make a site a success is the logical ordering of navigation and the orderly relationship of the parts to the whole. Not to mention of course, the obvious, namely, the contents. The human mind is so designed to see order, of similarity and contrast, of relationship and affinity, that site visitors tend to be put off by a mess, for example, in the frontpage. I just hope that we have achieved this goal in our site.

Well, as you can see, I am still picking up bits and pieces, here and there. So I apologize if you find some glitches in the new site and would really appreciate your comments. God bless. Ave Maria!

Fra Cyprian Mary, FI, your humble webmaster