WORCESTER.GOV

This is the website for Worcester City Council, that the Our Happy Place site could possibly be incorporated into, worcester.gov.uk

The banner image at the top features some attractive photography, with boxes to allow the user to enter their postcode to find relevant local information and also a search bar. Below that is the header, in the council's colour of bright green which I feel is very overpowering, along with the council's insignia. A lot of white space is used as well, with just touches of bright green which allows the majority of the site to be easy on the eye. In terms of the content, there is a main menu of quick links that are commonly used by council residents such as benefits advice and housing. There are also features, latest news, online links and a map. On the right hand side under the news links there are social media plug ins and links, for Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and an RSS link.

At the bottom of the page there are more external links, including the main Gov.UK parliament site. I find this site quite ugly, as the green is far too bright. The site is also very uninspiring and you don't feel the urge to stay on the website for long, although I imagine it is quite functional, especially with the quick links right at the top of the page. One link directs the user to the Worcestershire Hub (whub.org.uk):

This site brings together sites from the City Council and six local district councils to provide an information point for the whole area. This is also something that the Our Happy Place site could tap into. This follows a similar design scheme to the city website, with the photography and search bars very similar, however the colours are much more muted, with pale purple instead of bright green.

Here, I have designed a banner for an Our Happy Place section on the website, as one of the possibilities of the web element is becoming a subsidiary part of the main Worcester City Council site. For this reason it would have to adhere to certain guidelines, and as the Worcester City Council and Worcestershire Hub sites use the same style header so I developed one for OHP.

I used the house design instead of the floral photography and changed the header background to the pale blue from the report's colour scheme. I superimposed the Our Happy Place logo in place of the previous logos, but the yellow-green clashes against the blue. All in all it is not too bad, and so it could be a viable design.