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A New Look website for the PSSA


Phil Cooke
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www.pssaonline.co.uk – a fresh new look and improved functionality for our Associations official website!

Back in 2001, a lunchtime discussion between myself and Rez Manzoori identified some improvements we could make for our Association through the introduction of a simple PSSA website. Initially we aimed to compliment the quarterly newsletters which were being published by Alan Hulme, enabling us to better share news and views and capture historical records in a more modern and cost effective way. Of course over time the quarterly publications were dropped completely in favour of the website, we stopped printing the costly newsletters and we became a ‘free to join’ web-based Association.

Rez and I developed the site using tools and methods all very new to us at the time, neither of us were web-designers by trade and were very much self-taught spare timers – like the photography, this was an interesting ‘add on’ to the hobby we loved! We produced what we felt was a useful platform offering a recorded history of the PSSA, a diverse photo gallery where folks could show off their latest PSS creation, a catalogue of historical build and design articles, a plans directory, an events calendar and events review page. As time progressed, we’ve added functionality such as links to modern weather sites and to chat forums. Although it’s been well maintained for new content the general format of the site has stayed very much unchanged since its initial launch – and for some time now has received a little criticism about its ‘dated’ look. It had also never been designed for use on mobile phones or tablets – something we’ve been conscious of since the arrival and domination of the smart phone. A site refresh was needed to modernise the look and improve the functionality of our online home - PSSAOnline.

I’m extremely pleased to be able to announce that this site refresh is now complete and ready to go live on 1st March 2019. The new site holds all of the previous historical data as before, but now offers a modern-day ‘brochure’ type format, clean and vibrant in appearance and much easier to navigate from section to section within the site. For the first time site visitors will be able to purchase PSSA owned plans through the website shop, our photos can be filtered and viewed by aircraft type or by event location, and all of this is now formatted to suit either PC, tablet or smart phone.

I want to say a huge, sincere thank-you to PSSA members Warren Phillips and Peter Garsden, who since Christmas have provided a huge amount of their own time, skill and effort in the development of the new site design and in the transfer of site content from old to new. As well as kindly providing an experienced web-site design service, Warren has also acted as my guide and mentor as I too have learnt the ropes regarding the new softwares and methods involved, to the point where I can now continue to maintain and update the site independently as before – having traded MS Frontpage for Wordpress. This really is a significant improvement for our Associations online image and we’re forever indebted to Warren and Peter for their drive and energy in helping complete this significant task so effectively!

I hope you find the new PSSA website experience rewarding and agree that this modernisation has improved our Associations image for anyone who wants to learn more about our activities.

Check out the new site from 1st March 2019 when we go live - www.pssaonline.co.uk - and do please contact me with any feedback at [email protected] - many thanks!

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