MEDIA RELEASE: Why the website has changed

MEDIA RELEASE: Why the website has changed

23/06/2021, 6:00 PM

Where there are flooding or other emergency events, the number of page views on our website can reach over 200,000 in a single month.

The VICSES website is an invaluable tool for our volunteers and the public. But it’s also 10 years old, so we’ve built a new one.

The new site will have less text and more graphics, in line with improvements to design and technology during the decade since the last one was built.

Becoming a volunteer; where to find emergency information, and how to plan and prepare for emergencies are now clearly visible on the homepage.

The website also sits on a new platform so that the pages will scale properly for your mobile device.  Being on the latest platform means edits can be made to the homepage instantly, which is great in an emergency. This currently takes six weeks as we need to make and test all the changes before they go live.

“We were able to follow what our users were interested in by using information from website visits.'' says Scott Morgan, Digital Content Officer for VICSES. “After we looked at those site analytics, we knew where to focus our attention.”

The website now has a new flood guide search box to help you prepare for a flood emergency. Entering your suburb name or postcode will point you to your local flood guide, which has also been improved to make it easier to find important information about your flood risk.

Information in other languages has also been redesigned to make it easier for people of non-English backgrounds to quickly find emergency information.

The new site went live today.